One and Only Bluebird
by Tenchiko
Summary: Inspired by the two Fullmetal Alchemist animes, manga, and Chinese fan-made game Bluebird's Illusion (Primarily the Pride!Ed ending). When Edward and Alphonse investigate a suspicious underground passage, everything goes horribly wrong, resulting in the discovery of the revived homunculus along with a new Pride. On Hiatus (Sorry!)
1. Arc 1: Fleeting Illusion

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist! Bluebird's Illsuion doesn't belong to me! As such, all credit for both franchises are property to their rightful owners Hiromu Arakawa and Nolan Ocean-X. Thanks guys!

* * *

"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return.

To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.

That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange.

In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth..."

* * *

Arc 1: Fleeting Illusion

* * *

In the sandy town of Lior, Rose walked to the sit-in restaurant for her day job as usual. Things were normally slow on hot days like these so she didn't rush herself.

As she approached the little shop, she stopped in her tracks at the only customer who was there. Long blond hair. A red coat. She picked up the pace and called out, "Edward? Ed, is that you!?" Had she been paying attention to the little details, she would've taken notice of how this individual's hair was a few shades darker than Ed's—making him a dirty blond. That and his long hair was in a pony tail; as opposed to Edward's signature braid.

The person looked around to find the source of the voice. As he turned, Rose finally saw that it couldn't be Edward. This person's eyes weren't amber-gold, but instead a mix of gold laced hazel. His eyes more rounded than Edward's and had a more laid back expression. Now that she thought about it, his hair was parted more to his right side instead of down the middle.

The person's eyes went wide in recognition and a grand smile had quickly crossed his face. "Rose? Hi!" He said; standing up and waving to her with both arms. "It's me, Alphonse!" Alphonse? As in Elric? Last time Rose had seen him, he had been nothing more than a soul bonded to armor. So he and Ed had done it! They had finally got Alphonse's body back.

In excitement, they spent a couple of minutes laughing and talking quickly to one another about how much the other had changed since their last encounter. The manager, who came out to find out what the commotion was, had ruffled Alphonse's hair before heading back, prompting Alphonse and Rose to calm down, and Al returned to his seat while Rose clocked into work.

"So," Rose began as she served him the fruit punch and grilled turkey sandwich he had ordered, "tell me everything."

That was enough encouragement to get Al off and running about everything; the good and the bad. He recounted what had gone down in Central. The homunculus, his dad, Hohenheim, and his countermeasure, Edward regaining his arm in reverse-exchange, how Edward had given up his alchemy in exchange for Al's body... "It was tough to stand up at first. Brother ended up breaking my falls the first—I don't know—fifty times!" Alphonse chuckled while he had still been on that subject. He finished by talking about how they traveled for a while in separate directions to learn more about alchemy.

"Sounds like a lot has happened," Rose smiled as she brushed a strand of her pink-dyed hair out of her face.

Alphonse took a big bite into his sandwich. "Yeah, and look!" Alphonse got down from his seat and reached into his pocket. His eyes were bright with excitement as he pulled something out and held it proudly for Rose to see. In his white gloved palm was a silver pocket watch; the emblem of Amestris shining proudly upon the watch's lid.

Rose's eyes were wide in surprise. "You mean you-"

Alphonse's smile said it all. "Yup! I'm the second youngest certified State Alchemist-next to brother of course." He was still grinning as he slipped the watch back into his pocket. He remembers the day he had passed the State Alchemist Exams; how thrilling it was to be able to carry on the legacy his brother had left behind when he had to leave service for obvious reasons.

Oh the irony of having been given the title the Armored Alchemist for something other than his appearance. His soul, having been trapped in that armor for such a long time, was now more flexible; he could split it up and put it into inanimate objects- armor in particular -and control them with little effort. Even though it kinda freaked him out at first, he had to give this new talent some credit for him obtaining his certificate. So whatever.

He finished off his meal and was sipping down the last of his beverage when he heard Rose say, "Edward must be very proud of you." Alphonse almost did a spit take, but managed to choke it down without coughing too much. "Are you okay!?" Rose asked worryingly.

Alphonse managed a weak smile and said, "Yeah." He laid out the payment for the meal and stood up; instinctively bracing himself for a collision with the ceiling—something that he was used to from his time in the armor. "I'll be late for my train if I don't hurry," he said as he picked up his travel bag. "Tell the restaurant owner I say bye. And if his radio breaks again, you know who to call!" He quickly slipped Rose her tip and hurried off.

Rose looked at her tip, eyes widening as she called out to Alphonse, "Hey, Al, wait! This tip is more than twice as much as what you paid for the meal!"

Alphonse spun around and was walking backwards as he waved and called back, "Don't worry, I know! It's equivalent exchange, Rose. I hope you get yourself something nice with it." And with that he was off and running towards the train station.

"What's he mean equivalent?" Rose wondered out loud as she stared at her generous tip, "For what?"

Alphonse made it in time for the train and had found a spot in an empty train cart. He leaned out the window and watched the world breeze by.

With all his traveling experience, he was able to notice how not everything in the landscape was quickly left behind. Sure there were the trees, and shrubs which stayed behind as the train flew past. However the rolling plains, a soft green carpet at this time of year, always tried to keep up with them. And the purple-hued mountains or even a large hill, blending in with the scenery and the bright blue sky like magic, would stay in Alphonse's line of sight as if to say, "Hello, let's be friends!" They would stay that way until the train met a fork in the tracks, or no longer ran along the base of these landscapes where they would have to part ways.

Alphonse was filling out a report, which he would be turning in when he returned to Central—he had just come back from the excavation site—when he thought again of what Rose had said. "Edward must be very proud of you." With that in mind, he cracked a smile before bursting into laughter. He laughed so hard, his sides began to ache, and tears sprung in his eyes. "Brother? Proud?" he said as another wave of amusement came over him. He was surprised he had managed to maintain his composure about it up until now.

After a while he regained that said composure and sighed as he wiped his eyes dry. He looked out the window once more. The sky was turning a soft crimson as night time approached. "Proud huh?" he muttered as he took a look at his silver watch. His "military dog tag," Edward had said two years back.

xXxXx

_"You did what!?" Edward asked angrily._

_Alphonse regretted turning down Winry's offer to tell Ed in his place. Edward was steaming mad. "Well, I-I've applied for the State Alchemist Exams," Alphonse stuttered._

_Edward was pissed off with that answer and wasn't afraid to show it. "No! No way is my little brother going to become a dog of the military!"_

_"Edward, please," Winry cried, "let's talk about it in a calm manner."_

_"Calm?" Edward snapped, "Are you expecting me to be calm about my own brother making the biggest mistake of his life?"_

_Well, that had set Alphonse off. He stood up from his chair, trying to maintain his composure once again "Brother, I'm eighteen years old. I can make decisions for myself," he muttered through gritted teeth. "I know what I'm doing."_

_"Dammit, Al, no you don't!" Edward insisted._

_"Yes, I do!" Alphonse retorted back angrily; slamming a fist on the table. He regretted his actions only for a moment. Everyone, Granny, Winry, and even Edward were shocked by his sudden outburst. But he continued on while he had all their attention._

_"Throughout our journey, we saw lots of people who had suffered. It didn't matter how, it all looked the same to me," his eyes swept over the table; making sure they were all still listening. Then he stopped at Edward and stared him straight in the eyes—angry gold eyes against determined hazel ones. "'Alchemists be thou for the people'. Everyone had stopped believing that. At least until you came along._

_Also, a lot of that suffering came from past mistakes of our ancestors, including Dad." He paused for a second in order to choose his next words carefully; picturing the homunculus and all the war and bloodshed that they had brought to Amestris, "I want to learn more about Xerxes and why they created that homunculus in the first place. There must've been more there than the prospects of immortality, right? I'll find all that out, and make sure it never happens again. Don't you see, brother? I'm doing this for everyone we cared about who was victimized by the homunculus." Edward didn't answer, but instead got up and stormed out of the kitchen; slamming the door behind himself._

xXxXx

Alphonse sat there, dozing off in his seat in the train. It had felt good to have been able to talk to someone about his new position. When he'd come home after the exams, he had spoken to Winry about it, and she had been really happy for him too. But, it was kinda awkward to have been talking about that sore subject while Ed was around. Even though they did end up having a heart-to-heart conversation, it was still a little too awkward so he never had gotten into detail about it. So he hoped Rose treated herself to something nice with his little tip.

Once the train was at Resembol, Alphonse hopped off and had almost made it out of the station when he heard a mewing sound. He looked around until he found the source of the noise huddled under a bench. A calico cat with bright green eyes was huddled under there staring curiously at Alphonse.

_Oh shoot._ He instinctively stretched out his hand to pet the little creature. It accepted his gesture and he picked it up. "Oh, c'mon," he muttered to himself, "Now's not the time to be bringing strays home..." However his logic and his instincts weren't agreeing with one another. His head was saying "No." while his heart was saying "YES!" So after some inner conflict, his heart won out as he walked out of the station with his new feline friend licking his face with its sandy tongue. "Maybe they'll let you stay," he said to the cat as he softly scratched under its chin. After all, it was a pretty big day for Edward and Winry. Anything can happen.

* * *

Alphonse had arrived at the Rockbell's residence just as a loud crashing sound could be heard.

"Edward! I told you not to bump into me!"

"Calm down, Winry. There wasn't anything in the bowl anyway!"

"That's not the point!" Alphonse cringed as he heard the familiar sound of a wrench making contact with a person's skull.

He understood how it was. Every girl dreams of this day, so of course Winry wouldn't be any different. The last thing Alphonse wanted was to get caught into her excitement-induced wrath.

Even the cat seemed to sense the mood at it squirmed around in Alphonse's arms. He let the little guy down and sighed. "How about we just wait out this storm, okay?" He sat down on the side of the wall and began playing with the cat using a piece of string. It batted its tiny paws at the thread without a care in the world. _How on earth,_ Al wondered,_ could anyone dislike cats!?_

He was still on the ground when he heard Winry say, "I'm going to get some air." Footsteps could be heard as he tried to get up, only for the door to swing open in his face!

"Ow!" he cried as his back collided with the wall and tumbled back to the ground, surprising Winry. He almost faceplanted into the cat, but it managed to get out of the way in time. Cats are truly, lucky creatures.

"A-Alphonse!" Winry exclaimed, "Are you okay!?"

"Al?" Edward came running towards the door. "What happened?" He then saw Alphonse lying on the grass—his cat licking his face while he tried to stop his nosebleed—and reached out his hand to Al. "Need a hand?"

Alphonse blushed sheepishly. "Yeah thanks," he said as he was pulled up. He then leaned close to the ground and used a kunai to draw a transmutation circle with a star at the center. He made sure to keep in mind everything his friend May Chang had taught him about the Dragon's Pulse. "There, that should do it," he said as he used one hand to hold back the bleeding and the other to pin some more kunais onto the tips of the star. It glowed as he placed his hands on the circle—using his Alkahestry to heal up his bloody nose. "That's better," he sighed as he removed his blood-stained glove. _Well, I guess I'll need to clean this..._

"Your Alkahestry has improved since last time," Edward commented.

"You think so?" Alphonse asked. Edward simply smiled at him and nodded.

"Now c'mon," he said swinging an arm around Alphonse's shoulder, "Let's get you inside before something else happens." He smirked. "We can't have the best man down and out, now can we?"

* * *

It was after the wedding ceremony, and Alphonse, who had donned a blue dress shirt and black slacks, had been talking to an old neighbor when it was time to cut the wedding cake.

Alphonse still couldn't get over the fact that Winry had managed to convince Edward to wear a tuxedo. He had to admit it though, Ed looked pretty darn good in it.

While Winry...wow! She had picked out a lovely flowing white dress with a bateau style neckline that flattered her figure in the most appealing way. And with her hair having been pulled into a bun with small ringlets framing her face, she looked like an angel. No wonder he and Edward had once fought over who would marry her.

When Edward and Winry were about to feed one another a piece of the cake (like what all cute newly-weds do) Winry purposefully slipped up and got the icing on the side of Ed's face. Everyone laughed until Ed took a shot and successfully sent some icing on her nose. Well, that just created more laughter and cake smearing. However, Alphonse eventually decided to intervene before a food fight could break out (which most definitely would if nothing was done) by tapping on his glass so he could say a toast to the happy couple. _For crying out loud, clean your face, _Al thought as he absently noted the missed icing still on his brother's face.

He began with, "Thank you all for coming to witness the union between my childhood friend and my brother. Ever since brother and I were younger, the two of us had considered Winry to be like a sister. Well, apparently Edward felt a little more for our 'sis'." Everyone laughed as Edward turned red from embarrassment and flicked his eyes at Winry. "Then again, I did too so we're even," he said with an embarrassed blush of his own, "And I'm happy for them." He lifted up his glass. "To my best friends, and a happy life together."

With that, a few "Cheers!" were said following the clinking of glass.

Alphonse took a sip of the champagne, wondering how some people could stand drinking more than one glass, when he felt a hand pat his head. "Not too shabby a speech, Armored Alchemist," General Roy Mustang said. Riza Hawkeye waved hello to Alphonse from behind Roy.

"Thanks, General," Alphonse muttered, waving back at Hawkeye. He may be twenty now, but that didn't mean he was no longer into being patted on the head like a little kid anymore.

"Oh, Miss Hawkeye!" Winry called.

Hawkeye turned her attention to the bride and smiled, "It's nice to see you again, Winry. Or should I say Mrs. Elric?"

"Y-yeah sure." Winry blushed a bit at the thought of being called Mrs. Elric.

"I still can't believe I ended up inviting the Colonel," Edward grumbled to Alphonse.

"That's General to you, Fullmetal," Mustang said with a smirk, much to Edward's displeasure, "And also, this is somewhat of a business trip as well." He turned to Alphonse and accepted the file envelope from Hawkeye. "Colonel Bernhard asked me to deliver this to you along with good wishes to the happy couple."

Alphonse accepted the files from the General and smiled. "I'll remember to thank her once I'm back at Central." It was then that he noticed his brother scowl at the sight of the envelope.

* * *

"So, who is this Colonel Burn-head?" Edward asked Alphonse the next morning as he munched on some toast.

Alphonse tried to look serious, but cracked a smile at Edward's mistake (although he suspected it was on purpose). "It's Bernhard. Adaline Bernhard to be exact. She also goes by the name the Atom Splitting Alchemist. And for your information, she isn't too bad a person." Edward huffed at that comment. Alphonse continued anyway, "I stayed at her home during the Exams and had gotten to know her pretty well." He couldn't help but remember how he had thought she was an androgynous guy. Most of it was because of how low her voice was, how she was kind of flat-chested, and the fact that she wore the men's uniform. He had learned the hard way that "he" was a she... "Anyway," he continued, trying to pull his thoughts away from that awkward mistake, "Colonel Bernhard had found out about my research and decided to help me out." He motioned toward the envelope he had laid at the table earlier that morning. "She must've found something in the homunculus' old lair under Central."

Edward eyed the envelope suspiciously, "What would this Colonel be doing down there?"

Alphonse sighed, brushing a hand through his tangled hair, before answering. "Probably looking for chimeras," he shrugged, "That is her line of work."

"Chimeras?"

"Yeah," he said before sipping some of his coffee, "Unlike Shou Tucker, Colonel Bernhard is researching how to _undo_ a chimera transmutation." Edward raised an eyebrow at his little brother. "I'm not exactly sure why, but she's always seemed passionate about it so I've never questioned her." He took a sip out of his coffee cup while making a side note. "I need to remember to tell Zapano and Jerso about her soon…" Those two were still in Xing advancing their Alkahestry for research.

There was an awkward moment of silence until Edward mumbled, "Wonder where she got that idea..." before taking a bite out of his breakfast.

However, Alphonse saw that look in his eye. He was also thinking about Nina—Shou Tucker's daughter who had been used along with her dog to make a talking chimera. And they had seen plenty of other people who had the same thing done to them. If Colonel Bernhard was to find a way to undo the transmutation of chimeras, then it could help lot of those people who were still alive.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Edward finally asked. Alphonse was a little surprised that Ed was suddenly interested in it. But Al only shrugged and picked the envelope up. He opened it and pulled out the small stack of variously sized papers that were inside. The first page was a note from the Colonel.

_Major Alphonse Elric,_

_I would like you to take a look at the quick sketches and photos I had taken from my last investigation in the homunculus' hideout. I noticed that the charts, which I have circled in red, seem to be for a formula. However, I can't read the writing. Is it from Xerxes?_

_And then there are these separate rooms and passages. I've tried charting them out on a makeshift map, but even that is a bit of a guess. It's too big—like a maze!—and too much of the area has been altered or mysteriously blocked off. Do you think there might be any extra passageways that I had missed?_

_Furthermore, there's this piece if machinery I have found (look at the third photo). It took all my manpower alone to get it pulled out. It's like a melter. But what's it supposed to melt?_

_There seem to be more questions than answered in this letter, isn't there? My apologies._

_Anyway, I would like you to return to Central with any and all books written by your father Mr. Hoenheim ASAP._

_-Colonel Ada Bernhard_

The two brothers looked at the last paragraph and said in unison.

"Too bad we burned them all."

"Yeah I guess I could pull the rest of them out."

Edward stared at his brother in shock. "What do you mean 'pull the rest of them out'?"

"Uh w-well," Alphonse stuttered, "I—uh—well, when you had gone to your State Alchemist Exam I had stayed in an extra room upstairs. Whenever I was bored I'd take some of Dad's older looking, hand-written books, and...uh...I never...put them back…"—he shrugged sheepishly—"They're in the attic now..."

Edward laughed and shook his head. "That is way too convenient, Al." Alphonse only smiled at him. "Alright then," Ed said as he got up from the table. "When do you plan on going?"

"Going where?" Winry asked sleepily as she came in the room wearing a lovely pale blue night gown.

Edward smiled and kissed Winry on the forehead. "I was wondering when you'd wake up." Winry's cheeks turned pink as she kissed him back. "How do you feel about heading to Central?"

With that question, Winry's was suddenly fully awake. "What's in Central?" she asked suspiciously.

"Oh the usual. Nice people, big buildings, and an interesting Alchemist's theory," Edward smiled playfully as he swung an arm around Alphonse's shoulder.

Winry put her hands on her hips, but couldn't quite suppress the ghost of a smile. "Oh really? Well I was hoping to stay quiet about it, but you leave me no choice. I've gotta be honest with you." She gave them a look that practically screamed _brace yourselves_. "The real reason I decided not to go on a honeymoon was because it was the doctor's orders. It's not a good idea to travel until the nine months are over, you know." And with that, both of the Elric brothers' jaws dropped


	2. Chapter 2

"Winry's pregnant... Winry's pregnant... Winry's pregnant... Winry's-" Edward was certainly shell shocked by that little surprise.

While he had been freaking out, Alphonse kinda just stood there, mouth agape, trying to figure out when that had happened. Now, Edward wouldn't stop muttering to himself. "I'm gonna be a dad... I'm gonna be a dad... I'm gonna be a dad..."

"Hawkeye, hand me my gloves," Roy ordered. This had been going on since the beginning of the train ride, so Mustang was getting sick of it.

Hawkeye shook her head. "For the last time, Sir, no."

"Brother's just a little surprised that's all, General," Alphonse pleaded nervously, "Uh, Brother?"

"Yeah, Al?" He asked, quickly bouncing back to normal-much to everyone's relief.

"You know...you could've stayed home with Winry," Alphonse said. "So why are you coming?"

Edward stared at Alphonse sharply. "What? I can't just choose to drop by to see what my little brother has been up to?" Alphonse only shrugged and stared out the train window, promoting Edward to do the same "Besides, those samples have made me curious to see what else those homunculus had been up to." Alphonse turned to gaze at his brother; wondering what was going through his head.

* * *

As they got off the train in Central city, Alphonse looked around the crowded station. "Colonel Bernhard said she would meet with us..."

After some time looking around, he saw a figure among the ocean of people wearing the blue military uniform. It was a woman of small stature with curly brown hair reaching no lower than her neck. (Of course, Alphonse knew that it she had been trying to grow it out for a pretty long time already) It looked like she had forgotten to pull it back and put the pins in her hair to keep the loose strands out of her eyes. Alphonse quickly waved her over. "Colonel Bernhard, hi!"

Walking towards them, the Colonel waved back and saluted to General Mustang. "Nice to see ya again, Alphonse," she said with a subtle smile, "You too, General. Hawkeye." She then noticed Edward - who seemed to have been sizing her up. She smiled and waved at him; trying to comprehend what the heck was going on in the first place.

Alphonse couldn't help but feel like there was negative electricity being sparked between the two. He had to admit though, they were both like similar charges. Stubborn, tough as nails, and (to a lesser extent) short. Likeness repells after all.

"Uh, Brother, this is Colonel Ada Bernhard, the Atom Splitting Alchemist. Colonel, this is my brother-"

"Oh, so you're Edward Elric!" Bernhard exclaimed, cutting Alphonse off. "I've heard of you since your first day at the military." She offered him a hand to shake.

"Is that right?" Edward asked, accepting her gesture.

She grinned and nodded. "You're taller than I imagined."

Snap! Edward's temper seemed to flare as he tightened his grip on the Colonel's hand. "Who the hell are you calling a micro pint-sized short stack!?" he growled as he aimed his other fist fist at her gut; successfully knocking her down. "You're even shorter them me, you jack a-"

"I never called you that!" she gasped; trying to regain her second wind. "And my height is justified!" She rolled up the hems of her pants while still sitting on the pavement to reveal glints of metal showing. "Take a good look. It's just a sick joke my brother pulled on me while constructing my automail."

* * *

"I didn't know your brother was your mechanic," Alphonse commented during the car ride to Central headquarters.

Edward (still a little ticked off with Bernhard) grunted and said, "Sucks to be you," as he continued to look out the window.

Colonel Bernhard laughed a little at Edward's sulking. Sure, she could've charged him for assaulting an officer, but she had chosen to be nice for Alphonse's sake and just let it slide. "Yeah well, after my legs were blown to hell during the Ishvalan War, my brother insisted on making them for me. Said I was gonna be his little 'test guinea pig' for a new automail design of his, but I have my suspicions..." she smirked at the thought. "I'm such a pushover for that jerk."

There was a pause of silence until they arrived at Central headquarters. The large military building was impossible to miss. It had a sort of Romanesque feel to it with its three stories height and the flag of Amestris waving proudly beside it. It was once an abandoned museum, however after the old Central Command was put under lockdown for further investigation it had been reconstructed and renovated to meet the needs of the military personnel who would be using it.

"I'll have the driver take you boys to your apartment. Remember to bring in your report of your trip to Xerxes," General Mustang instructed as he, Hawkeye, and Colonel Bernhard left the vehicle.

"We can talk later about you-know-what when you get back, alright?" Colonel Bernhard said.

Alphonse shook his head, "Nah, I'm too anxious to hear about what you've found. And I have my report right here," he gestured toward his bag. Turning to Edward, Alphonse asked, "How about you, Brother?"

Edward shrugged. "I didn't bring much so I can wait a little longer," he said trying to conceal his interest.

* * *

In Colonel Bernhard's office, she pulled out a few more photos that she had chosen to hold back from the letter. "Take a look, Major Elric." Alphonse picked up the photo and scanned through it. It looked like someone's silhouette was on the dark metallic wall. "The sewer system had a passageway that led underground to Central Command. I had been shooting pictures at random under there when that was taken." Bernhard explained with a piercing green-eyed gaze. "Keep in mind, I had been completely alone. What do you think it might've been?" Unsure himself, Alphonse shook his head in the negative and shrugged. "So either someone was trespassing, or we've found someone else who's interested in the homunculus aside from yourself," she deduced as Edward and Alphonse scanned through the relevant photos.

Edward, then, picked one up- eyes widening - and showed it to Alphonse. "Hey, Al. Look at this."

"What?" he asked as he glanced at it. His own eyes widened as well. "What the-!?" He quickly snatched the photo; hoping he was just seeing things.

Colonel Bernhard raised an eyebrow at them. "Find something, boys?" Alphonse hastily handed the photo over to Bernhard. In it was a small, almost child-sized, human silhouette-its shadow in motion showing, what looked like, an eye cracking open.

"Now what do we have here?" Bernhard asked; almost equally as surprised as the Elric brothers had been.

"There's only one person I can think of who's able to do that," Edward muttered. Alphonse nodded in agreement with his brother.

They both thought of the same person and said in unison, "Pride."

Colonel Bernhard intertwined her hands together and rested her chin on them. Through knit brows and a worried gaze, she asked, "You mean Salem Bradley?" The Elrics both nodded.

She quickly stood up and hurried over to General Mustang's office, the Elrics not too far behind. Having entered the room unannounced, Mustang was about to protest until Bernhard quickly showed him what Edward had discovered.

"Has anyone checked up on him and Mrs. Bradley recently?" Colonel Bernhard asked.

Mustang leaned back against his chair and seemed to have been thinking about it for a moment. "I believe Gruman does so on a regular basis. However I don't have the details about any recent visits."

Bernhard shook her head. "Well do you mind asking him? Tell him it's urgent."

"Are you ordering your commanding officer, Colonel?"

"Not in the mood, Mustang!" she spun on her heels and faced Edward and Alphonse sharply. She meant business. "Now for you two. Until we get this matter resolved, you two are to return straight to Alphonse's apartment, or, so help me, I will place you both under house arrest!"

"What!? Why!?" they asked in unison.

"Oh don't play dumb with me," she retorted. "Knowing your history together, you two were probably thinking of heading on over to Central Command to investigate on your own."

Alphonse protested. "N-no, I wasn't!"

"Well now that you've given me the idea.." Edward mumbled in a low voice.

"Oh hell no!" Bernhard barked, making Ed and Al flinch. And with that, she dismissed them in order to speak privately with General Mustang. After they left, Bernhard sighed and plopped into the chair Riza offered her-clearly not used to raising her voice very often. "So, General Mustang," she said in a calmer tone, "when do you think you can relay that information to me?"

"Soon," Mustang answered as he got up from his desk. "Lieutenant Hawkeye, clear up my schedule for the rest of the day."

"Sir?"

Mustang slipped on his gloves before going over to the door. He stared down Bernhard - she returning his dark-eyed gaze with suspicion. "Let's go, Colonel Bernhard. You too, Lieutenant."

Bernhard and Hawkeye both exchanged questioning glances before the Colonel asked, "Where to?"

"Where else? Central Command."

* * *

Alphonse followed his brother faithfully past the "Caution" tapes and "Do not enter" signs that they passed while in Central Command's plaza. The grass was now long and wild looking along with the dandelions and other weeds that now dotted the area. It was like approaching a haunted house. Alphonse couldn't believe it was the same old place where he had gotten his body and Edward's arm back. And the last place where the homunculus called Father was last seen.

"C'mon, Al. Try to keep up," Edward called softly as he ran on ahead of Alphonse.

"Brother, are you sure this is a good idea?" Alphonse asked nervously. He really didn't want to get caught and have to answer to Colonel Bernhard.

"Yeah we'll be fine," Edward assured confidently, "It'll be quick. We go in. We go out. So quit worrying."

"How about we just stay out in the first place?" Edward ignored him and kept going. Alphonse groaned in frustration as he tried to keep Edward's back (or at least the tip of his blond braid) within his line of sight. They had already made it inside Central Command-now a cracked and rotting shadow of its former self-by the time Alphonse caught up with Ed. "I swear, Brother..." he panted, "if I get a demerit...or court martialed...I'm blaming you."

Edward only shrugged-trying to wipe off a grin all the while-as they continued on. Using the map Colonel Bernhard had given Alphonse, and their own combined memory of the place, they quickly found the passageway back to that underground room where they had once been in during the Promised Day.

"Maybe now's a good time to head back," Alphonse suggested.

"No, not yet," Edward replied. However Alphonse was getting really nervous! He couldn't help but consider the worst case scenario. If Salem has gone back to being Pride and is trying to revive the homunculus, then only Alphonse would be able to fight him. Edward didn't have his Alchemy anymore. He'd practically be a sitting duck, for Salem!

Alphonse decided to let Edward know how he was feeling. "Hey, Brother?"

"Yeah, Al?"

"What do you plan on doing? If Salem shows up I mean."

Edward stopped in his tracks and considered it for a moment. "Well, Al..." he turned and smiled sheepishly at Alphonse. "I was thinking of just winging it. Play it by ear, you know?"

Alphonse face palmed and thought Oh dear, God, help us. He looked around for some materials he could use. Once he noticed that there were unused steel beams lying on one side of the dark hallway, he clapped his hands together to transmute it into the PDW handgun. "Here, Ed," he said as he handed it over to him. "Okay now for bullets..."

"Do you seriously expect me to use this?" Edward questioned as he glared at the weapon. Alphonse handed him the bullets and an extra pack.

"No, but better safe than sorry," he replied, "Besides, this model is specifically for self defense. It's nothing like Hawkeye's guns."

And with that they kept going. Finding a passage way that hadn't been labeled on the map, the two stared at each other and nodded; an agreement had gone unspoken between the two. Alphonse and Edward strode into the dark, mossy room. Alphonse looked at all the abstract drawings on the wall. It was like the art he had seen on his most recent trip to the Xerxes ruins. And then the most familiar two were seen. One was the mural of a transmutation circle having the sun and the moon at its points and the characters for "God" mirrored over twin dragons in the center representing a declaration: "I will strike down God and become a perfect being." The second showed a lion eating the sun which was supposed to represent the Philosopher's Stone.

"Judging by the decorations, we're in the right place," Edward mumbled. Suddenly, the faint sounds of footsteps had reached the Elrics' ears, and the two hurried over the the door; pressing themselves against the wall. Alphonse, who was closest to the door, leaned in closer to get a better view. His eyes widened as he saw the same sized silhouette from the picture approach the room. Once it was close enough that he was able to see the figure better, he realized it really was a black-haired child with matching eyes. Salem! However, Salem stumbled into the room covered with open wounds; staining his torn his clothes with a dark red hue. After a while, Salem collapsed; prompting Alphonse to make a bee-line towards him.

Edward tried to grab Alphonse's red coat in order to pull him back but had just missed by an inch. "Hey, Al wait!"

Alphonse ignored Edward and kneeled over Salem, who was barely conscious. "A-are you okay?" he asked. Salem only glanced at Alphonse before cringing and letting out a small groan from the pain. "Let me help you," Alphonse offered as he began making the Alkahestry circle with some chalk he had on hand.

"Alphonse!" Edward called as he made his way to the two of them.

Salem was trying to say something as he pushed his hand weakly into Alphonse's hip. "Hang on, it'll be quick, I promise," Alphonse assured as he activated the transmutation circle. He then realized something was a little off. He quickly turned to Edward with a hint of fear showing in his hazel eyes. "Brother, something's wrong. He isn't regenerating on his own." Edward's eyes went wide with the realization as he tore off his pea coat to access his shirt in order to make bandages.

Salem finally found his voice as he croaked, "get...out...of here." The two brothers looked at each other questioningly until they felt the same bone-chilling presence coming from the direction that Salem had entered from.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" asked the smooth voice of a woman. "Oh my. I remember you boys," she smiled through rouge painted lips.

Like church bells, mournful and eerie, on execution day, the Elrics could hear the sound of both entrances ominously closing. _Oh crap._

* * *

"Gez! This place is a dump," Colonel Bernhard muttered as she, General Mustang, and Lieutenant Hawkeye walked cautiously to the entrance of the underground labyrinth.

"Four years certainly can take its toll," Mustang agreed. His eyes darted from place to place; waiting for anything to jump out of the shadows at any moment. Having Hawkeye nearby had always made him feel safer (or less so if she's mad) however he couldn't let his guard down ever. "Now, Colonel Bernhard. Once we meet up with the Elrics, try not to kill them."

"What?" she raised an eyebrow, "I'd sent them to Major Elric's apartment."

"Sorry, Colonel," Riza explained, "but those two wouldn't listen to an order like that if their lives depended on it. Keep in mind that that is how the Fifth Laboratory incident happened after all."

Bernhard's face turned red with anger as she began cracking her knuckles and grumbled, "Dammit! Those two are dead men once I'm through with them."

"Colonel, didn't I just make it clear that-" Mustang was cut off by a low shaking sound-like what you would hear during an earthquake-that was strong enough to cause the ceilings to tremble.

"What was that?" Hawkeye asked as she instinctively placed a hand over her gun.

Mustang stood there for a moment, staring into the direction where the sound came from. "Lieutenant, stay here and wait until I come back. Colonel Bernhard, you're coming with me."

"But, Sir-"

"No 'buts'," Mustang ordered. "If I don't return within the hour, you may discard my orders and follow after me. Understood?"

Hawkeye looked like she was about to protest, but changed her mind as she saw that she wouldn't win this argument. She sighed and saluted the General. "Yes, Sir!"

Mustang, relieved that he wouldn't be wasting time arguing with his subordinate, pasted on an expression of severity before marching forward; Colonel Bernhard following not too far behind.

"Be safe, Sir," Hawkeye muttered to herself as she watched him disappear down the hallway.

* * *

Alphonse had quickly tried to heal Salem as well as possible, but he was still inevitably going to need professional medical attention. Al then clapped his hands together in order to make a pole-similar to what Edward had once made-and asked the familiar woman, "What's going on?" He tightened his gloved grip on the weapon."I watched General Mustang burn you..." He took a good look at the busty woman, wearing her signature black dress, who had been defeated by Roy Mustang years ago. "...Lust."

Lust maliciously smiled at the young Elric. Pulling back a strand of her dark, wavy hair, she said, "Oh you remember that? Well, there is a bit of a story behind that, but..." she walked towards Alphonse and Edward, who had both put themselves between her and Salem. "...I'm a little too busy at the moment to stay and chat." Lust then, extended her lance-like nails in an effort to get the Elrics out of the way.

Edward had managed to dodge it in time, while Alphonse had spun the pole to knock them away-snapping his weapon in the process. He picked up Salem and quickly put some distance between them and Lust. He laid Salem against a wall before clapping his hands together in order to send spikes growing from the floor towards Lust. She cut them down with one hand and used the other to take aim at Alphonse and Salem.

"Al!" Edward yelled as he fired a single shot at Lust. It had missed by a few inches.

Lust turned and smiled at the panicked look on Edward's face. A hint of malice could be seen in her violet eyes. "What now?" she asked coyly, "Even when your dear baby brother's life is on the line, you purposefully miss an open target?"

"Shut up!" Edward snapped, while still holding the gun out. Alphonse took the opportunity to transmute a wall-made arm to attack Lust with. She dodged as she sent another one of her lances back at Alphonse. It almost successfully struck him had it not been for Salem. Salem had enough strength to send one of his shadows to intervene. Alphonse looked at him in surprise and mouthed a grateful 'Thank you' to him. Salem only nodded grimly in response.

"So you still have enough in you to use your shadows, Pride?" Lust asked.

Salem glared at Lust coldly. "Leave the humans out of this," he hissed. "I'm the one you're after." Salem tried to stand up only to tumble back to the floor.

"Then turn yourself in," Lust commanded, "You're too weak to put up a fight."

Edward and Alphonse were oblivious to the situation until Pride/Salem snapped back at Lust. "I am no longer interested in following 'Father' any longer. And you will not have my Philosopher's stone!"

Lust only shrugged as she prepared herself for her next attack. "Fine by me. I'll just take it by force. You do still owe me for what you did to Gluttony." She chuckled a little before aiming once more at Salem. Alphonse jumped in the way on instinct; receiving a blade in his shoulder as a result.

"Alphonse!" Edward tried to run over to him but was hit from behind.

As he fell on the floor he tried to get a glimpse of who had struck him. The same person then grabbed him by his braids and pulled him up. Edward was shocked once the person spoke in his ear in a familiar voice. "It's been a long time, o-chibi-chan."

"What the-Envy!?" Edward exclaimed.

Envy-that green haired bastard-grinned evily. "In the flesh."

Still shocked, Edward shouted, "I saw you commit suicide!"

Envy ignored Ed and addressed Lust. "How long does it take to nab Pride? He can't be causing you that much trouble"

"Don't pester me," Lust retorted, "I'm almost through with him."

"Hang on a sec..." Edward muttered to himself as he came to an important realisation. He twisted his body until he was able to swing his automail leg into Envy's shin. Envy let out a pained grunt as he hit the floor. "You just called me little didn't you!?" Edward growled.

Envy got up and grinned evily at Edward's outburst. "Oh so you still have that sensitive spot eh, pip-squeak?"

"Why you-" And with that, the two of them had engaged in hand-to-hand combat. This skirmish continued on for several more minutes; Alphonse attacking and dodging assaults from Lust, and Edward struggling against Envy-fully aware of his new disadvantages. Without his alchemy, let alone his prosthetic arm, it was harder for Ed to fight back without having to resort to that dreaded gun. And he wasn't up to firing that thing a second time.

"You two have to get out of here," Salem insisted as Alphonse used himself as a shield to protect the small homunculus from another attack from Lust.

Transmuting another wall-made arm to aim at Lust with, Alphonse hastily answered, "But they want you dead, right? I can't leave you alone with these guys."

Salem glared at the young Alchemist. "You don't stand a chance."

Al ignored him and tried to find an exit. _C'mon. Think!_ While distracted, another lance had almost struck him when Salem cut it off with his shadows once more before coughing up portions of what, at first glance, appeared to be blood. However after a few seconds, it solidified to reveal that it was small bits of Salem's **Philosopher's Stone**! One look showed Alphonse that Salem wasn't going to last long. But in all fairness, he himself and even Edward were both tiring out as well. Alphonse decided to transmute a new exit but an alchemic flash, showing in the wall to his left, indicated that someone else was already beating him to it. _What the heck!?_ The makeshift door swung open showing-to Alphonse's undeniable relief-that there was now some back up.

"General Mustang!" Alphonse exclaimed.

From behind, Colonel Bernhard-clearly ticked off at Alphonse's insubordination-walked over in unnaturally large strides. A flick of the eye showed how hard she was resisting the urge to beat the bloody hell out of the Elrics. She crossed her arms as she took notice of who Alphonse had been carrying in his arms. "Salem Bradley I presume?" she asked Alphonse.

Trying to maintain a calm demeanour, he nodded grimly and responded, "Yes ma'am." He stared down at the now unconscious homunculus. "I did the best I could, but...he needs medical attention quickly."

"I see," she replied. Bernhard took Salem from Alphonse's arms and looked over to General Mustang. "I'll be taking this kid over to the infirmary. Think you can handle this, General?"

Mustang nodded and instinctively tugged on the edge of his ignition gloves. "Go, and tell Hawkeye to send in more backup. Now hurry!" Had the Colonel had a free hand, she would've saluted the General before leaving through the grubby exit. Show time. "Major Elric, Fullmetal. Envy's all yours," Mustang said as he turned towards Lust. She glared at him reproachfully. He grinned smugly at her obvious caution towards him. "It's been awhile," he mocked, "I hope you haven't gotten rusty since our last fight."

Alphonse scurried over to help Edward as Mustang snapped his fingers to ignite an enormous ball of fire at Lust. She was quick to dodge just as one of her lances came close to striking Mustang in the neck. He just barely craned his neck out of the way; earning a close-cut shave at the edge of his raven hair. _She's gotten faster!_ he thought.

Alphonse had reached Edward and Envy just as Envy pulled out a blade he had meticulously tucked away and lunged it towards Edward. Quick on his feet, with or without his quickening heartbeat, Alphonse clapped his hands and touched the ground in order to split the floor between the two. Edward managed to jump out of the way while Envy...eh... More or less so.

"Nice shot, Al," Edward praised with a cocky smile. Alphonse twitched a smile back and looked at the ground-bashful about the unnecessary but much-appreciated approval from Edward.

However Envy didn't give the two a second to catch a breather before morphing both of his arms into toxic serpents to assault them from opposite directions with. Alphonse transmuted a blade to cut off the head of his serpent while Edward decapitated his serpent by letting it sink its teeth into his prosthetic leg and blew its head off with a carefully aimed bullet.

The Elrics hurried over to stand side-to-side with one another before speaking in lowered voices.

"Do you regret not listening to me yet?" Alphonse asked. He could clearly see that Edward was worn out; judging by how many bruises were beginning to show on him. His clothes were pretty dirty and cut up as well.

"Nope," Edward replied with a smirk-much to Alphonse's dismay. "I've been needing an excuse to kick some ass!"

With that question settled, the two charged at Envy simultaneously only for Envy to transform into his monstrous lizard-like shape with a long black mane and six pupils on its left eye. Alphonse's stomach churned at the sight of the human faces and limbs protruding all over the body like drowners-momentarily attempting to surface before being pulled down by others. The people of Xerxes who fell victim to Father all those years ago were probably among them. The same people who Ed and Al's dad, Hohenheim, had probably known well while the great country had still been standing.

Alphonse quickly turned to Edward. He mustered as much authority as he could before addressing him, "Now's the time for you to stay back, Brother. I'll handle it from here."

"What!?" Edward snapped, "Who's the older brother here? You can't tell me what to do!"

"Who's a State Alchemist?" Alphonse countered. He should've used his military authority a looong time ago. Edward glared at his little brother as he stepped back slowly. That probably hurt his pride, huh. Alphonse thought to himself.

"What's this?" Envy asked in mock surprise, "The pip-squeak isn't a military dog anymore?"

"That's none of your business," Alphonse replied. He ran towards Envy just as the monster swung his gargantuan tail at him. "Now's where's that stone of yours kept again?"

Edward was quick to reply; easily recalling when he had once been swallowed by Envy. "Look in the back of his mouth!"

Envy growled at Edward as he swung his tail in Ed's direction. Thankfully, Alphonse tried out the method he had seen Scar and Edward perform many times. _Transmute but stop at the deconstruction stage..._ He put it into action as Envy's tail exploded. "What the-"_ That was too big!_ "My bad!" he called as Edward got blood and tail tissue rained on top of him.

"Watch where you blow stuff up, Al!" Edward shouted back. _Gross. Now I'll have to burn this shirt..._

However, Alphonse only shrugged it off and hurried along Envy's reptilian back while trying to figure out how he would weaken him. He struggled to keep his eyes away from the human-like figures that were emerging from Envy. One glance, and he knew he'd freeze up.

A cry of pain was suddenly heard from where Mustang and Lust had been fighting. Mustang had finally been pierced in the shoulder; his dark eyes wide and blood was already streaming out of him. Lust, with a devious smile of twisted pleasure, called over to Envy. "It seems that Pride has left the area. You can stop playing around with the former little armored boy." She pierced two more holes into Mustang before retracing her lances and watching him collapse.

While having been distracting by the scene, Alphonse heard Envy laugh and, without warning, one of the figures grabbed a hold of his leg and tripped him up. A yelp escaped Alphonse's throat as he slid, still trying to regain his footing.

"Al!" Edward ran towards Al, as he was falling down to the rock hard ground. He'd barely caught Al-carrying him in an awkward (almost hilarious) bridal position.

Alphonse opened one eye to get a grip on his surroundings. **_Damn_** that would've been bad if Ed hadn't broken his fall.

"You okay, Al?" Edward asked as he let Alphonse back down.

Alphonse instinctively brushed off invisible dust from his red coat as he tried to calm his breathing. "More or less. Thanks." He looked around and noticed that he didn't see Envy anymore. Then he saw from the corner of his eye a flash reflecting from a steel blade. "Ed, out of the way!" Alphonse screamed as he pushed his older brother out of the blade's direction. His nerves screamed bloody murder as the blade sunk into his side. He saw the look of shock and horror on Edward's face as the blade was pulled up in order to worsen the wound and increase the blood loss.

Alphonse crumpled onto the floor and grasped onto the open wound. Blood rapidly began soiling his gloves red and he couldn't think straight enough to graph out an Alkahestry circle in the back of his mind.

"Whoops! Wrong human," he heard Envy sneer. How had he returned back to his normal form so quickly!?

Alphonse could practically feel the rage growing in Edward. "You bastard!"

"Ooh did I provoke the pip-squeak!?" Envy laughed with a snide tone. "Can't do much without your Alchemy can you, Chibi?" Edward lunged at Envy in an attempt to strike a blow only for the homunculus to dodge him and knock him down.

"Oh? Is that why he hasn't been using it? He's _lost_ his alchemy?" Lust asked. Edward got back up quickly, but Lust immobilized him with a single strike of her lance into his automail leg. It was a bullseye; cutting off the main nerve chords that kept the mechanism in his control.

Alphonse watched helplessly as Edward lost his balance and tried to stay upright by leaning on the wall. His fiery determination never slipped from his eyes as Envy advanced toward him.

"Well, Lust," Envy began, "Since the chibi is of no use to us anymore, I think we should just kill him now." Envy didn't hide his eagerness of killing Ed, and that alone frightened Alphonse as he laid there; unable to help his brother.

Lust seemed to consider this for a second; observing Edward's struggle to stand. Once she came to a conclusion, she answered him. "No not quite yet." A bone chilling smile crossed her face as she warmed up to her idea. "He has Hohenheim's blood; more so than his baby brother. It might just help quicken Father's recovery."

_What!? His blood!?_ Alphonse's eyes widened as Envy, beaming all the while, morphed a fisted hand into a gauntlet-like shape before striking a hard blow into Edward's chest-much to Ed's surprise-and knocked him unconscious.

"Brother!" Alphonse croaked as his brother slumped to the floor. Blood from the assault could already be seen dying Edward's shirt with its dark crimson color. _Do they mean they'll drain out all of Brother's blood?_ "Ed, answer me!" Alphonse tried forcing himself to stand up-just as quickly losing to his body's desire to curl up into a fetal position on the floor in pain.

Envy, laughing at Alphonse's pitiful attempt of dragging himself to his brother's side, picked up Edward and swung him over his shoulders. Envy walked over to Alphonse and lightly kicked the boy in order to see the pained, desperate look framing Al's face. Envy sneered, "You just stay there like a good little boy. Unless you want your dear big brother returned to you in smaller pieces."

"Damn you," Alphonse growled as he tried once more to pull himself up. Wisps of rage filled his gut only for it to be replaced with pure fear for his brother's life.

"Let's go, Envy," Lust called as she made her way out of the room. "This place is about to be terminated, and I'd rather watch it crumble from the outside."

And with that, the two homunculus walked out as the room began to shake.

"No!" Still desperate to save Ed, Alphonse tried to move one more time and began screaming from the top of his lungs. "Don't you take him! Stop! Brother, wake up! Wake up!" Tears began streaming down his face as he watched Envy and Lust leave; taking Edward with them.

Alphonse head was spinning - oblivious to the shaking that was causing the room to vibrate under his body - as he tried in his mind to get a hold of what just happened. T_hey took him. I couldn't do a thing and they took him! What have I done!? It's all my fault! It's all my fault! Brother...I'm so sorry!_

Alphonse strained to look across the floor from where he laid. General Mustang was barely breathing as he slowly began losing blood. _Someone needs to go after them._ Alphonse put his crumbling thoughts aside as he looked for something to write with. The only thing in large quantities was blood. _Hang on a little longer, Brother._ He reached out a soiled gloved hand into his own growing pool of blood. His consciousness was wavering as he drew the circle. Then the star. And finally, he lunged his spare kunais into each corner and activated the transmutation circle. He was careful to put all his concentration and care into healing General Mustang's wounds.

The room was trembling with avengeance as Alphonse closed the last of Mustang's wounds and keeled over. "Please...help...brother..." he breathed as he saw Mustang slowly getting back up. The world began to get blanketed in darkness from Alphonse's unfocused perspective. Mustang had spotted Alphonse and had started calling out to the young Alchemist. However the words were lost as Alphonse gave in to darkness' avaricious grasp...

* * *

xXxXx

* * *

**Me (Tenchiko!): Yay! New chappie! I swear this took waaay to long for my taste!**

**?: Ahem. Oh Silver~3 (Tenchiko's nickname)**

**Tenchiko: Oh yeah. Hey dudes, meet my new writing partner here.**

**?: Hi! I'm Annie Leonheart II!**

**Tenchiko: ...wut!? We didn't agree on that alias! O_o"**

**ALII (?): Yeah I'm just kidding. I'm Chicako. This chapter was so much fun to help Silvs make!**

**Tenchiko: Awww thx!**

**Chicako: Anytime bud. And readers, feel free to like, follow, and review this story! We're always looking for cool ideas!**

**-Tenchiko and Chicako**


	3. Chapter 3

The weak, slow beeping on the monitor, representing the young Armored Alchemist's heart rate, was driving Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc nuts. Of all the people in the world, it always has to be an Elric. Havoc only had second hand information about what had transpired, but it was information enough.

Hawkeye had been surprised enough when Colonel Bernhard came back with no Elrics or General Mustang but instead carrying an injured Salem. The two women had barely left the old building when the damn thing decided to kick the bucket and cave in. Hawkeye had searched frantically for the three men, as though her life depended on it, until she had found the minivan-sized dome Mustang had transmuted in a last-ditch effort to keep a comatose Alphonse and himself from being squashed.

Alphonse had been as pale as a corpse—heck, he'd been close to becoming one too—and there was no sign of Edward anywhere. Apparently, Alphonse had closed the majority of General Mustang's wounds with his Alkahestry, but Mustang was only able to carefully close the bigger wounds in Al's shoulder and hip via burning it; like he had with Havoc once before.

Roy Mustang was well enough that he almost immediately began a search for Edward as soon as Alphonse was put in safe hands. Hawkeye had protested—stating that, he too, needed a once over by a medic—but the man wouldn't listen. It's only been less than forty-eight hours; no sign of Edward.

And now, here was Havoc; assigned with guarding the younger—still comatose—Elric. The poor boy looked terrible: his darkening blond hair was matted and slightly sticky with clotted blood despite the nurses' utmost efforts to clean him up, and his unnaturally pale face—undeniably heated at the touch—was somewhere between drug-induced tranquility and pain-stricken from his rising fever.

There were suspicions that the weapon used on him had an infectant that his unstable immune system—a constant hazard since his time in the Gate—wasn't handling the way it should. Furthermore, due to the large amount of blood he had lost and overexertion, Alphonse's life seemed to be hanging in the balance. If nothing changed fast, he was going to die.

* * *

Edward shifted around on the hard, cold floor. _What happened?_ When he tried to open his eyes, they burned from looking straight into the luminescent lightbulb above him. His muscles ached like crazy, his throat was dry, he couldn't even begin to count the bruises he could feel dotting his body, and overall, his chest felt like it was hit by a train moving at top speed. So yeah, he felt like crap. Worse than crap. More like bull crap the combined size of Amestris and Xing. Yeah, that about fit the bill.

Last thing he remembered, he and Al were fighting against Envy when...

"Oh crap Al!" Edward tried getting up only to realize his hands were tied. Literally. And where the hell did his automail leg go!? (He suspected he'll get an earful and a wrench to the head from Winry if it's gone for good.) He looked around and realized where he was laying. Is this a circle!? he thought. He finally noticed that someone had further ripped up his clothes—making his attire less than adequate even for men's definition of modest—and intricate red marks had been dug into his skin. _These better be from washable magic markers,_ he thought to himself. He blew some stands of his blonde hair out of his face (which was no longer in its braid) and tried to tear off the ropes with his teeth; cursing his bad luck all the while. There was something else lying behind him, but, since it was warm and wet, he figured that he didn't really wanna know what it was.

"So you're finally awake, boy?" a slightly familiar voice asked Edward.

Ed quickly let go of his bindings and squirmed around to get a glimpse of the speaker. His golden eyes widened at the familiar face. "Dad?"

The blonde 'bearded bastard' stood up from his throne to get a closer look at the former Alchemist. "Oh? Is Hohenheim still alive?"

"Oh? _You're_ still alive?" Edward replied sarcastically. "Just great." He tried hoisting himself upright, but was fairly unbalanced and quickly hit the floor with a thud. He needed to get out of here. Alphonse could be at death's door for all Ed knew. His gut churned at the thought of his little brother—always so bright-eyed and lively—being dead. He had just gotten his body back dammit! He can't just die! He can't...

"It's such a shame that you had traded off your Alchemy. You had been one of my most important pawns."

Ed's train of thought was cut short when he finally noticed that they weren't alone. The other homunculi were in the room as well. He recognized Lust, Envy, and Gluttony, but there were two more he didn't recall seeing before. The smaller one looked like a little violet-eyed boy who'd never had scissors used on him even once in his lifetime. The other one...Edward honestly couldn't see them very well from their spot in the unlit corner, but—deducing from the silhouette he could just barely make out—it was safe to assume that it was a woman.

"I suppose we'll just have to fix up and improve some of our pawns."

Edward could barely see what Father handed to Lust. Lust shrugged, not minding Father's decision in the least, as another hand grabbed at Edward.

Envy's voice was barely audible as he whispered into Edward's ear from behind. "This should be fun." Ed, disgusted by how that gave him goose bumps, tried to struggle against Envy's touch. However, he was physically incapable of putting up much of a fight against Envy as he still was slightly worn out from their earlier encounter. He was propped upright, but, before he could react, he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest! He looked down to see what had just happened. One of Lust's lances had gone into his chest; almost striking him in the heart. Once they retracted, he came close to collapsing; crediting Envy's hold on him for his ability to still remain upright . It felt like something large was lodged in his chest, and Edward was surprised that he was still conscious at all.

Blood spattered out of him as both the marks on the transmutation circle and the ones on his flesh lit up. _What's going on!?_ Envy had jumped out of the circle beforehand, and now Edward felt the sting of a thousand blades come at him. His body began to deconstruct and reconstruct multiple times; each time Edward tried to fight back against the invisible force. Then he felt it: many souls crashing against one another like wrathful onceanic waves. _They put a Philosopher's Stone in me!?_ He writhed in pain as he felt an undeniable heat coming from his own skin. He would've been screaming if he wasn't such a damn stubborn guy, but he suppressed it as much as possible; only letting loud groans slip out every now and then. Was this transmutation coming primarily from the circle or those markings?

Images and events flashed in his mind like a photograph before they seemingly burned to ashes from the heat. He couldn't put his finger on what those images were after they had burnt out. When the images took place in reality. What kind of place the figures within had been. What they were doing. Who they had been. His nerves had numbed out, and he felt dazed by the time the burning images became fewer and fewer. After awhile, his consciousness wanted to give out, so he let it do so. Why resist anyway?

After the transmutation ended, he became still. The homunculus who had been watching all waited until Father ordered, "Cut his ropes."

Envy stepped forward and cut them. Envy glanced at Edward's right shoulder and grinned maliciously as he spotted the ouroboros tattoo. He turned to Father. "Looks like it worked, Father. A new sin has been born."

"Good," he replied. "I'll be expecting great things out of this new breed of homunculus; Pride."

However, unbeknownst to them, there was another individual who was affected by this new transformation…

(Plz at least read the first paragraph of my author's note below)

* * *

**From here on, I will be using many Fullmetal Alchemist Bluebird's Illusion references so unless you have even a vague idea of what the video game is, I recommend that before continuing on, you guys do your homework and/or go onto my profile (^ up there at the top of the page) and read my brief explanation of the main ending that this FanFiction is based off of.**

**I swear this was an insanely short and crappy chapter! It will haunt me forever… *Bows* I'm so sorry don't kill me! TT_TT**

**So I hope you guys can comprehend what the *censored* just happened. If not then I apologize. Just give me some time to enlighten you at my own slothful pace. (Yes, according to my sisters I would make a great Sloth! XD) I'll cross that bridge…eventually…**

**Chicako: *was grounded (she still is) and had all her electronics taken away so she didn't contribute to this chapter…at all* (Only reason I know this is 'cuz she took her computer into the closet and Emailed me before she turned it in to her mom)**

**-Tenchiko**


	4. Chapter 4

**_This chapter_ is why it's taken me so darn long to update anything. XP**

* * *

xXxXx

* * *

_ "__Hey…Al?" _

_Alphonse looked up from his book at Edward. "Yeah?"_

_Ed sat himself on the couch next to Alphonse's left. There was an uncomfortable amount of silence until Edward broke the awkwardness by tousling Al's hair, which was still neatly trimmed short at the time. "Is it just me, or is your hair changing colors?" he asked in an attempt to start a conversation._

_Al blinked. "Really?" he asked as instinctively brushed a hand through his hair and tried to see the edges of his lengthening bangs. "I can't tell."_

_Edward pulled the band out of his own hair so he could make a comparison. Yep, it was turning darker. He and Alphonse used to both have the same shade of light blond hair (although Al's had always seemed a bit lighter). But now, it seemed to be darkening to a dirtier blond. _

_ "__I guess it's possible…" Alphonse muttered to himself out loud. He's heard of blonds becoming brunettes as they age and the same happening the other way around. So it was possible that the same thing was happening to him. A strange, but almost welcoming thought, eagerly crossed his mind. "Maybe it'll turn brown like Mom's."_

_ "__Yeah maybe…" More silence. Naturally… They hadn't spoken much after Al had returned from his State Alchemist's Exam with his certificate and silver watch in tow so it was to be expected."Al I—"_

_ "__Hm?"_

_ "__I don't hate you for…becoming a State Alchemist. You know that right?"_

_Alphonse slowly nodded; trying to hide the relief that flooded over himself at being forgiven. "Good. I'm glad."_

_ "__It's just that—…damn I dunno how to put it…" Edward leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. He wasn't too good with putting how he felt about the matter into words that wouldn't come out harsh. "It's just that…" He lifted his right hand into the air; staring at it with little interest. 'May as well just let it all out' he thought. He took a deep breath and spoke in a soft manner. "That day…When mom closed her eyes and let go of my hand. From that point, I felt that…the Bluebird in my life had flown away forever, never to return…But," he looked directly into Alphonse's eyes; sadness clearly showing in his own golden eyes. "When I grasped your warm hand again, and saw your gentle smile once more, I suddenly felt I was within the blue skies, and saw a glimpse of the Bluebird…" Without even thinking of it, Edward had pulled Alphonse's hand into his own; forever grateful for having been able to give Al his body back. In the back of his mind, he was reliving that day—no—that moment; when Alphonse was freed from the armored prison Ed had put him in, and Al had what was rightfully his returned to him. "I have nothing more I can hope for...I just wish...I just wish we can always be like this —Together with everyone else. Wishing all this will never disappear." His hand tightened gently around Al's for good measure. "I only wish that Bluebird won't be just…another unattainable illusion."_

_Alphonse remained silent throughout Edward's speech as guilt filled his heart like a rushing river with every word. He had done it again… Al didn't even try to—he never did when it happened but still… He'd still done it He had hurt Edward…once again. "Ed I—" he tried to keep his voice from cracking. _

_For a moment he thought of that first night in the hospital. He sleep had been impossible no matter how hard he had tried and was too weak to stand let alone sit up or walk around. Ed had been with him all night long regardless of how he himself was undeniably tired. The two of them. Just talking about anything and nothing in particular until Alphonse had finally drifted off to sleep. That was probably one of his happiest memories._

_And now here he was, causing Ed unnecessary pain and sadness. Al was so ashamed of himself. After a while he thought of something to say. "Ed?"_

_ "__What's up?"_

_Alphonse lifted up his pinky to Edward. "I-I want to make a promise with you."_

_Edward looked at Alphonse for a second. He slowly lifted his own pinky—not having done this since they were kids—and linked their fingers together. "Such as?"_

_A spark of fire lit the younger Elrics eyes; a trait that was usually exclusive only to Ed. "I promise that I'll be the one to protect your Bluebird." Edward raised his eyebrow curiously, but said nothing. "I'll make sure that it isn't an illusion. That it's real and it won't ever have to leave again. Because your Bluebird…is mine too."_

* * *

Present Day…

* * *

"He had a what!?" Colonel Bernhard demanded as she entered the room.

Havoc cleared his throat before answering. "A seizure." The two shot a quick glance at Alphonse, who was quietly lying in the hospital bed; still unconscious and completely oblivious to what happened to himself. "Everything seemed perfectly fine when it happened."

Bernhard pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. How could this have happened while they were away? She had just returned to HQ after helping Mustang relocate an opening to the passageway the homunculi had left in when she found out. That was a couple of hours ago.

The doctors had already performed a CAT scan, but Alphonse had shown no sign of any brain damage that could've set off a seizure.

He had just come out of his coma and seemed to have been momentarily responsive to the few yes/no questions Havoc had asked him. "Do you know where you are?" Nodded yes. "Do you recognize me?"

Nods again. "H-Havoc," Alphonse had managed to croak out.

"That's right. Do you feel okay?" Al shook his head in the negative. "Do you need anything?" Shrugs. Not sure. "Do you remember what—" but before Havoc could finish his next question, he noticed that Alphonse's eyes had suddenly gone vacant. His body had stiffened, and he slumped back as his body began to shake uncontrollably. Trying to hold Alphonse still, Havoc tried calling out to Alphonse, but he didn't respond. Soon enough the doctors noticed the ruckus, and came running. It took time for Alphonse's seizure to stop, but when he did, he had momentarily flat lined; frightening the hell out of everyone in the room.

Since then, Alphonse hasn't woken up. However, there was one good thing that came up after that little episode. His body had begun fighting back the infection and his fever began to break—almost as though someone had flipped the "power" switch on his immune system.

_But why now?_ Colonel Bernhard wondered. _And how would this affect him in the long run?_

* * *

It was dark and undeniably claustrophobic in the underground passageway. Roy didn't like it. He had managed to get this far with Lieutenant Hawkeye and the team of men Hawkeye had gathered together in record time for him, but there was still no sign of anyone or anything, aside from a handful of rats, having come by recently. _Those damn homunculus are too tricky for their own good,_ Mustang thought bitterly to himself.

No one messes with his subordinates without him having anything to say about it. Losing another comrade to those homunculus bastards…his thoughts slowly trailed to Hughes. He didn't make it in time back then. Now it was almost replaying all over again. Almost. But this time, he was going to make it. Otherwise, he—

"General," Hawkeye softly called from behind him—pulling him from his thoughts. She jerked her head to the side to bring his attention to that direction. "At my nine 'o clock: there's a lit exit."

Mustang quickly back tracked his steps and walked hastily into the new direction. Yeah. He was definitely going to make it in time.

* * *

Alphonse let out a small moan as he began to arouse once more. His head felt dizzy and he hadn't even opened his eyes yet! He heard familiar voices from a distance as he tried to rub his eyes. Something tugged on the flesh at the bend of his left arm as he tried to move it. There were lots of them, actually. In both arms. His right hand instinctively went toward the first one and tried to pull it off; only for another hand to stop him.

"Come now, Al. Don't do that," a woman's voice said.

Alphonse peered open his eye in order to find the source of the voice. After waiting for his eye to finish adjusting, he was able to see who it was. "Wh-where am I?" Alphonse asked in a barely audible voice. It sounded dry and scratched; almost like he hadn't used it in forever. Finally, his eyes cleared to see the two familiar faces.

Havoc glanced at the other person in the room—a seemingly tired-eyed Colonel Bernhard—before answering in a soft voice. "You're in the infirmary."

Alphonse looked at his arm; seeing now, that there was an IV steadily providing medication into his arm. He tried to sit himself up, only to realize that he was too tired to make the effort. "Ed," he muttered; suddenly recalling what had happened in vivid memory, "Where is he?"

Havoc was hesitant to answer. He promptly turned to Colonel Bernhard for support.

"Is he safe?" he pressed.

Bernhard opted to avoid lying to the poor boy. Al's smart enough; he'd probably be able to eventually figure it out on his own anyway. "The General is still trying to track the homunculus down, but don't you worry. We'll find him alright."

There was a moment of silence before Alphonse answered. "I see…" He hastily propped himself up once again; finally finding the strength—if not the energy—to do so. He tried to tug off the IV again before Havoc proceeded to protest and stop him. Al looked at him with pleading eyes. At times like this, Alphonse always seemed to become many years younger than his mature twenty years. "I need to help find him," he mumbled, "Please."

Bernhard placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "No way in hell, blondie," she replied in a blunt tone. "You're not well enough to leave, and—even if you were—I'd still say 'no.' Consider it a type of discipline for ignoring my orders if you want." Yes, that was harsh, but Bernhard would rather be the bad guy than let one of her closest associates get into harm's way any further.

Alphonse looked completely defeated as he slouched back into the bed. Should he listen? If he wanted to be smart, yes. Did he want to be smart and listen. Not a chance. Al would never forgive himself if something happened to his only blood-kin left in the world. He had to do something. Otherwise, he was breaking their promise. _Brother…Please be okay._

* * *

Within an old mansion; located outside of the military's close eye, the homunculi were all gathered together. All of them waiting. For Father to chose when the time is right to make the first move.

"I'm booooored~~" one of the two newer homunculus—the smaller one—wined from where he was swinging upside down on a steel beam. "There's nothing to do here."

Envy was getting annoyed as all hell with this brat. He almost missed the old Wrath. Emphasis on "almost." True, the old Wrath was a pain in the neck, but this new Wrath was worse; always needing something to do no matter what the time of day. He was surprised that no one else was saying anything—not even Wrath's partner Sloth. Damn woman.

What's more, the others keep saying that Wrath's powers were even weirder than Envy's. Do they mean that in a good way? A bad way? Envy didn't know, nor did he want to find out! Anyway, this new Wrath has the ability to merge and fuse his body with virtually any matter, both living and inanimate, organic and inorganic. He could practically be a chamera or crying out loud!

"When is Father gonna be done with Pride?" Wrath asked.

"To hell if I know," Envy snapped. "Now quit asking!" Father was finishing up the adjustments to this new breed of homunculus. He was certainly different from the rest of the homunculi in many aspects. Envy sneered at the thought of how the little armor boy will react to Pride.

The door to Father's chambers creaked open as two individuals came out. The first one was Father; making his way to the throne to speak with the rest of his homunculus children. And the second was their newest addition to the homunculus "family."

*Having a near duplicate of Envy's outfit he wore a black form-fitting top that did well to expose his well-toned abs and the **shorts with cloths covering it, his intricate red markings standing out all over his body for all to see. The only difference between Envy's and this individual's clothing is that his outfit has longer mis-matched lengthed gloves and red markings similar to Lust's. He didn't pull back his long golden hair—whether it is because he doesn't want to or he doesn't care, no one could say. But overall, the most noticeable physical trait were his haunting eyes; two pools of gold—dulled from the fire that had once lit it.

Their newest sin. Pride.

* * *

***For the love of all that is good and just, Pride!Ed's physical desc. was so effing hard/awkward for me to type down! I had to stop and calm my nerves every now and then, it was so dang hard. Eventually I just cracked and used the Bluebird's Illusion and the FMA wikia for references. I hate to admit it but…Pride is eye candy OwO ( A chick who actively toys with the idea of making him her desktop screensaver every day)**

****I _refuse_ to admit that it is technically a skirt! Ò[]Ó^**

**(Hey uh…did I misspell "Homunculi" or does it just look stupid on my computer screen?) Two chapters at once in order to water down the hysterics! #VictoryIsMine**

** No one kill me yet. It's just going to get more interesting from here.**

**I went all Barry the Chopper on this chapter! *Ninja chops the air* Copying, Pasting, Word replacing, Point of view swapping, gah! *Face desks* I would've flipped a table if it wasn't for my primary workspace being located in the kitchen (Mom zone). Chicako's gonna have a heart attack over these two chapters when she gets back on here. (See my profile if you wanna know why)**

**Credit to the Fullmetal Alchemist and BBI Wikia for facts on all the homunculi. (Yeah, I use that sucker a lot for those guys [I'm such a looooser! XD])**


	5. Arc 2: It Was Never There

**I know what you all are wondering…So why has it taken me a whole freaking month to update? Several reasons.**

**One. I have a life, school, and a bad history of slacking off…**

**Two. If you check on my profile, you'll know that I'm also working on my own novel. So I try to get further into both of these projects within a day, but life doesn't always work out for me that way.**

**Third. I had gone on hiatus for a few days in order to write a Hetalia: Germany x Reader oneshot for my big sister's seventeenth (?) birthday! If you want to read it, go on my profile, click on the link to my DA profile, and you'll find it among my most recent postings.**

**Fourth. After much writing and soul-searching, I've realized something about myself…I'm a cruddy worker if I don't give my projects a sturdy backbone/outline. So I'm still in the process of giving this one a complete outline from chapter 1 to the final chapter. (May the Lord help me greatly!)**

**Fifth. Apparently my love of using my mac is a problem in my mom's book. So she's been telling me to expand my interests to something that doesn't involve having my face stuck onto a computer screen. So I've been doodling uselessly, and reading a lot. Sorry, guys.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"When Pride comes, then comes disgrace,

but with humility comes wisdom."

(Proverbs 11:2 NIV)

* * *

Arc 2: It Was Never There

* * *

Wrath jumped down from his beam and landed on the concrete floor with cat-like grace. He scurried over to Pride's side and tugged on his hand.

"Hey, Pride, are you going to be allowed to work with me and mommy?" he asked in a childish tone. By 'mommy' he was referring to Sloth. Pride couldn't understand why Wrath would create such a childish attachment to her, but he supposed as long as Sloth doesn't see anything wrong with it, he won't bother to deal with the child.

Pride observed Wrath carefully with a blank expression before answering. "I will only be outside the tunnels…" Wrath was disappointed by that. However, he seemed satisfied that Pride had answered at all so Pride ignored him as he trailed behind. _Childish attatchment…_ Pride thought. _He's almost as bad off as Gluttony…_

"My children, you now have all your assignments. The tetrad will come soon enough so time is of the essence," Father said.

Parting ways with Envy, Lust, and Gluttony, Pride headed out with Sloth and Wrath for their conjoined assignment, but the sound of someone—in fact, it sounded almost like more than one person alone—could be heard from further into the passageway. Pride wondered to himself who could've found this passageway. And, more importantly, what did they want?

Wrath tugged on Sloth to get her attention. "Who do you think it is?" he asked curiously.

Sloth, as unruffled as ever, barely glanced towards the direction, dark and dank, of the incoming footsteps. "It's nothing to worry about," she assured Wrath. Without even looking in his direction, she told Pride, "Would you handling them be too much of a bother, Pride?"

He honestly didn't care…If that is what is expected of him, then he will do it. He walked deeper into the direction of the intruders. "Go on ahead of me…Father will be displeased if we all fall behind schedule…" he told them as he clapped his hands together.

* * *

"General," Riza called softly from behind Roy.

Roy glanced back at her. If the silent severity in her voice wasn't enough to stop him in his tracks, the concerned look on her face certainly did the trick. "Something wrong Hawkeye?"

Riza slowly nodded. An exchange of eye contact was enough to convey the message. Someone else was here, and the likelihood that they meant no harm was very low.

Roy nodded and slipped on an ignition glove. "Everyone, step back towards the direction from which we came. Slowly." He felt ready and able to light a fire if the incoming individual attacked.

It didn't take long for a something swift to whoosh by, barely cutting Roy in the face. Roy jumped back in time and snapped his fingers, sending an explosion of red hot fire in the attacker's direction.

"So…you are an alchemist…" it came out as more of a statement than a question. Another black silhouette flashed by with a glint of steel pinpointing the individual's estimated location, cutting into one of Roy's men without a second spared to blink. As the soldier fell, Riza took this opportunity to fire a warning shot at this attacker; hopefully just barely grazing him or her. But the silhouette kept on moving. It kept on going until the familiar sound of hands clapping together could be heard.

A wall formed itself standing between Roy and the attacker. Riza was trapped, along with the rest of the men, on the other side. Roy was about to snap his fingers. He tried to remain poised in spite of the surprise that this person could perform alchemy without a transmutation circle. Before he could snap, he was able to make out the back of the individual. His eyes widened as he could see that this person's, his hair long and blond. When he slowly turned to face Roy, the most noticeable this Roy picked up on was his eyes. Despite now being emotionless and almost cold, Roy could recognize those eyes with little effort. There were only two people left in the world had eyes like those.

"Fullmetal?"

Roy watched as this person slightly cocked his head. His eyes gave nothing away; Roy couldn't detect whether this supposed confusion was genuine or a fein.

By then, Roy had finally noticed what he was carrying. It was a scythe. Black and foreboding, this person carried it like it was an extension of his arm. And he didn't seem all too concerned about whose blood he soaked it in.

He ran towards Roy, preparing to swing at him. Roy leaned back sharply to avoid coming into contact with the blade.

"Fullmetal! Edward Elric, is that you!?" Roy shouted, trying to get an answer out of him.

He suddenly stopped and paused for a second before responding. But it wasn't necessarily the answer to Roy's question. "You're wasting my time…" he said. Then, he turned and walked away. He stopped for only a moment. "I don't know who this Fullmetal Edward Elric is…but I'm not him…"—a cold glance was shot at Roy—"Leave, before I change my mind about letting you go…"

Roy was at a loss of what to do. The sound of thumping—presumably his rising heart rate—filled his ears. _That was Fullmetal!_ a voice in his head screamed, _It had to be!_

First thought? _Go after him… Do it now dammit!_ Second thought? _What am I going to tell Alphonse?_

If the thumping would only stop then maybe Roy could think a little more clearly. Then he remembered Riza. And the wall. _That's_ where the thumping was coming from. He quickly ran over to the wall. The clapping method wasn't exactly his favorite, but, nevertheless, he used it to take down the concrete wall.

As the wall crumbled, Riza quickly moved herself to Roy's side with her handgun's safety clicked off as the rest of the men went to check on their fallen comrade. "General!" Riza exclaimed in relief. The wall fencing her off from Roy had made her worry. She feared that he was going to be killed and she'd certainly had enough of his near-death experiences for one day! She looked around for the offender, but there was no one. "Where did he go?" she asked cautiously.

Roy spun around and saw what Riza was referring to. He was gone.

* * *

He ran. Pride didn't even understand why, but he ran. When he first saw that soldier—and I mean, got a crystal clear look at him—he had immediately connected a word to his face. _Colonel Roy Mustang._

_Well, technically,_ Pride corrected himself,_ it's General. _

_But how did I know that?_

Then the soldier asked for someone. Fullmetal Edward Elric. It sounded foreign to Pride. But at the same time familiar.

Pride didn't know what to do; how to react. So he just let him go. Pride waited until the soldier had turned his back, before picking up speed. He'd refused to stop until he was sure he was too far to be traced.

Pride eventually slowed himself down, and leaned myself against a wall, damp and mossy. His scythe had slipped out of his trembling hand. He slid to the ground firmly gripping his hands together so he could focus on calming himself. Pride hadn't even realized he was perspiring enough to make his hands slightly slick under his gloves. How embarrassing…

He waited until his nerves calmed themselves._ If any of the others were to see me like this…_ Pride thought, _I think I'd die…_ After a small pause he he realized what he'd just said in his head. _Okay, I know that sounded stupid coming from me, but it's a figure of speech._

He pushed himself up and went slowly to the rendezvous point. Wrath and Sloth seemed to have already been ready for him to catch up for a while now. From what Father had told him and the other two, these tunnels had originally been created by another Sloth. Not surprising, Pride thought, considering how much physical strength must've been required in order to create this in comparison to their current Sloth's physically smaller appearance. For her, it would've been quite a challenge…

Apparently, the military had constructed walls at certain points in the tunnels in an attempt to cut off access to them for another Nationwide transmutation… Might as well…They would be using these for something a little different this time around.

Pride's souless eyes met with both of theirs. All that was between them and the use of these tunnels was these useless walls the military had created for this sector. After a nod of the head from both of them, Pride prepared to clap his hands together. "Well, now…shall we begin?"

* * *

**ASDFGHJKL I have recently come to a realization. So I did a quick calculation during math class, and my rough estimate states that I got Ed and Al's ages wrong! Ed should be at least twenty-one while Al should be twenty. *Swearing fit* So I'll be fixing that up…sorry guys.**

**Haha this was incredibly short…I'm a failure at action scenes! *Sulks* I promise, the next one will be better TT-TT **

**Oh and…the Bible scripture? It'll make sense soon enough…**

**-Tenchiko**


	6. Chapter 6

**(Whoop! Two chapters in one month!? I'm on a roll :D)**

* * *

The two-room apartment was dark and dusty. Aside from two bedrooms, a main living area—slightly too small to be considered a "room" per se— and an equally small kitchen were within its four walls. The light from the peeking sunrise filtered in through the balcony window. In the living room next to the windows, a cat of soft ginger fur was curled up in a cat bed behind the plush sofa. Across from the couch was a study desk. Sitting on that desk, lacking the band to hold back his darkening blond hair, was Alphonse. After returning from the hospital the night before, he had tried writing out some research notes and had fallen asleep along the way.

A second feline, a white-mittened black cat seemingly younger than the ginger one, hopped onto the desk. It rubbed the side of its face against Al while purring loudly.

Alphonse let out a moan and cracked open an eye. A small smile crossed his lips as his gold laced hazel eyes came into contact with his cat's bright green ones. "Good morning, Charity," he mumbled as he stroked the creature. He sat up and stretched with a deep sigh, relishing in the refreshing sensation that came over his unwinding muscles. He glanced over at the other cat, as the older feline slept peacefully in its little bed. "Looks like Valentine is going to miss breakfast," he whispered to Charity with a mischievous wink. He had no problem talking to his cats like they're human. Charity didn't seem to mind either as she mewled back in response.

He put on a pot of coffee and as Al laid down the bowls for both his cats, he groggily glanced at the clock. 12:00 a.m. He blinked for a moment before the realization sunk in… "I'm late for work!" he screamed as he dropped one of the bowls; it almost landing on top of Charity.

Alphonse ran into his room, grabbed his military uniform, and tried to hurry and button it up all the while gathering up a few of his papers. "Why do these uniforms have to be so hard to put on!?" he complained loudly to himself. "There's a logical reason why Brother ditched this damn thing…" he grumbled as he checked to see if he was forgetting anything.

He slammed his apartment door behind himself as he hurried down the hall, and to the stairs with a rubber band clenched between his teeth, his paperwork in one hand, and a muffin in the other. He completely forgot about his coffee…

* * *

"I have 500 cens that say he slept in," Colonel Bernhard announced as she stepped into General Mustang's office.

Havoc jumped into the bet. "Alright. 400 says he ignored his alarm clock."

"Oh c'mon," Fuery protested. "I doubt Alphonse would just _ignore_ his alarm clock. …I'm going to join in Miss Colonel's side of the bet."

Riza glowered at Bernhard. "Really, Ada? Now _you're_ making bets too?"—she sighed—"Of all people, why did _you_ have to fall to such a low level?"

"Can't win 'em all." Bernhard smiled and shrugged as she laid some papers onto Mustang's incredibly tall pile. He, however, wasn't paying much attention to as he stared off into space with jumbled thoughts rushing within himself.

Roy had been reluctant to return to the office. Only at Hawkeye's insistence did he actually return without much complaint. Emphasis on _much_.

"Mustang," Bernhard began in a lowered voice. "Just tell him. He won't hate you for it, and I know he'll help you figure it out."

Roy only glared at her. Why did he even tell her about what he saw down there again? Now he had two subordinates pestering him about the obvious choice he should be making concerning his youngest subordinate. "Don't you have paperwork of your own to deal with, Miss Bernhard?" he asked in an icy tone.

Bernhard made a face at him, but didn't say anything between the deep sigh she heaved as she walked out of the office.

After the door closed behind her, Riza spoke up. "She's has a point, Sir." Roy tried ignoring her while hurriedly signing some random papers. She added quietly what was obvious, "You know she does."

There was a deafening silence before Roy replied in a low, almost inaudible voice, "I've told you before why I won't do it…Why I _can't_ do it."

More silence. No one said anything. No one wanted to… The spell was finally broken when the door swung open to reveal a panting Alphonse, his hair still not pulled back and his face slightly red from running.

Alphonse tried straightening himself and saluted to Roy. "Sorry I'm late, sir!" he apologized "I forgot to set my alarm clock before I went to bed last night!" From behind him, Havoc had gotten up from his seat to go talk with Colonel Bernhard about who had won the bet.

Roy waved his hand in a nonchalant manner, indicating to Al that he could be at ease. "That's fine, Major."

Alphonse finally tied back his hair and quickly approached Roy's desk. He asked in a low tone, "Is there any activity from the homunculus? Anything I can work with?"

Roy stood up from his seat as Al waited patiently. "Let's go into Colonel Bernhard's office shall we?"

* * *

The Colonel pulled out a map of Amestris and carried it over to her cleared off desk. "Thanks for dumping the time bomb on me, Mustang," she grumbled as she walked behind him. She spread out the map to reveal the rough sketch of the double pentagon Nationwide Transmutation Circle doodled onto the country map's surface. "Okay so this is just a guess, but it is safe to assume that the homunculus are aiming to recreate this circle, am I right?" Bernhard asked as she tapped a pin against the map.

Alphonse studied the map and nodded. "But to do that, they'll need another total solar eclipse to occur…"

"Well in that case, their plans are already screwed. Another one of those won't happen for a long time"—she brushed a hand through her hair—"So then what else? The tunnel will be hard enough for them to regain control over so that's not too big an issue."

As a thought suddenly occurred to him, General Mustang piped in, "There is one more detail they're missing." Alphonse and Colonel Bernhard looked up from the map at him. "Hohenheim's now gone. Also…"—Mustang just barely met eyes with Al before looking away—"Fullmetal doesn't have his Gate anymore. That means, they're missing two sacrifices."

Al frowned and nodded. He could think of two people who were qualified, but there was no way he—or Roy considering how he's aware of the existence of one of them—would let either them be discovered.* Sounds simple enough.

"Well then—" Before Al could finish his sentence a rapping at the door cut him off.

After being allowed entry, a soldier hastily entered the room. After a quick salute, the soldier addressed General Mustang. "Sir, we have received urgent word from the tunnel's southern checkpoint in South City."

"Yes, go on."

"The walls; they've been broken down. And the Southern soldiers have lost contact with those on patrol in the tunnels."

Alphonse quickly stood up. "General, sir. Allow me to go."

In truth, Roy would've rather not let Al go. However, as he stared at Roy with Elric determination shining in his eyes; Roy knew he definitely wasn't going to dodge this bullet.

* * *

Pride took down another wall as Wrath subdued another soldier. The humans were definitely leaving nothing to chance. He turned to glance at Sloth, who had mostly stood on the sidelines and watched Wrath and him. "It's ready now…" Pride said to her.

She calmly nodded and stepped past him. With the flick of her hand water from under the earth manifested itself. And the tunnel filled with water from the knee up. Pride hurried ahead and took down two more walls. Then, he put up another one between the three of them and the waters.

"Wrath…its your turn…" The smallest homunculus nodded and morphed out a Red Stone from the palm of his hand. Then he went through the walls to apply the stone into the water.

* * *

**Mwahaha I named one of Al's cats after my older sister! See I—Uhhh…Yeah…It's an inside joke.**

**I swear, I feel like the world is against me. This is SOOOOOO effing short. *Sulks* Let me know if you all think the lengths are pathetic...I'll try to merge the next two chapters together if this keeps happening...**

***Free rainbows to anyone who remembers who "they" are! XDDD**

** So I did some digging and on this one website (was it NASA? I can't remember) it said that solar eclipses happen twice a year however they are normally unnoticeable since the sun isn't completely blocked. (Thus partial solar eclipses happen more often but go unnoticed because the big ball of fire that we call the sun is simply that incredibly bright) And then there's to consider the geographic location of where the sun, earth, and moon are aligning and where the country is located. So about every eighteen years have to pass before another total solar eclipse I think. Correct me if I'm wrong. Science of any kind is not my forte sooo…**

**So my friend Chicako had recently contacted me. Apparently whatever happened at her home—slipping grades I think—is bad enough that her parents are removing all her (and her sibling's—if one goes down the rest are going down too apparently) electronics until there's an improvement in her grades. So she's backing out on helping me with this fan fiction. Don't worry, I'll still be writing this. But I'll be incredibly slow without someone to push me and bounce ideas off of. So your reviews and random ideas are much needed for pushing this five foot tall turtle forward.**


	7. Chapter 7

**(Moar free rainbows to anyone who noticed that I finally made a cover for this story [because I slaved over drawing that bugger. So I hope it's appreciated! XD]) Oh my gob stoppers finally! i have been excited to make it this far so yay! **

**Dearest Lilaclily00: Awww don't feel bad. *gives you a chocolate gold coin for trying* And the answer is Julia Chrichton from the movie Sacred Star of Milos and the Alchemist Jude from the OVA and one of the manga's chapter extra both under the title "The Blind Alchemist."**

**Okay now sit back, relax, read, and make sure to review!**

* * *

The phone rang on the other end of the line. Alphonse had twelve minutes to explain everything to her before his train set off. One half of him wanted her to answer quickly; the other did not. How could he explain it to her without making her upset? _The answer is simple_ he thought wryly; he couldn't.

"Rockbell Prosthetic Limbs Outfitters."

Without even thinking about it, Al flinched. "W-Winry?"

"Al? Is that you?"

"Yeah uh—"

"YOU IDIOTS!"

Al flinched and immediately positioned himself into a defensive stance while onlookers outside the phone booth gawked at him. "I didn't even say—"

"YOU TWO LEAVE HOME, DON'T CALL ONCE YOU GET THERE LIKE YOU PROMISED, AND _NOW_ YOU DECIDE TO CALL!?" she screamed over the phone.

"W-well I—"

"A WEEK! IT TOOK YOU A WEEK TO BOTHER PICKING UP A PHONE!" Al kept the phone some distance away from his ear as Winry continued to seethe. After a moment of silence, he put the phone back up to his ear and said her name. She sighed on the other end. "Whatever," Winry grumbled, "Just put Ed on the phone. I oughtta crack his skull for the worrying he's put me through."

"…"

"Al?"

"…I'm so sorry…"

"Al? …What's wrong? Ed. Where is he?"

"Winry I—" Al tried not to lose it. He'd never cried before. Not since his mom died. And he didn't want to break that streak now, over the phone. So he told her what happened as quickly but clearly as possible before his voice could break. Winry stayed quiet during the whole ordeal much to Al's appreciation. "Winry, I'm so so sorry. If I had been quicker, if I had just said no in the first place maybe—"

"That idiot," she said, cutting him off, "Why can't he just settle down for once?" A deep sigh could be heard over the phone. Winry spoke after a pause of silence, her voice becoming soft and understanding. "When do you think you'll be able to bring him back home?"

Alphonse blinked at the question until he understood what she was trying to do. "I—…I don't know. Before the baby's born hopefully?" he answered trying to choose a reasonable time for her.

"Sounds fair enough," she concurred. "And as soon as you find him, let him know that his wife will be waiting back home for him with a wrench in hand."

Al tried and failed to suppress a smile. At the worst of times, Winry knew just what to say to cheer him and Ed up. "Alright I will." The whistle of the train notified Al that it was almost time to go. "I'll be heading to South City now. If you need anything, just call South HQ."

"Alright I will."

Before he could say goodbye, another thought crossed his mind. "And one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"I need you to promise me something…"

The train conductor could be heard calling out a final warning to any lagging passengers. He was telling them to hurry and board immediately as Al made his request to Winry over the phone.

"Thanks a lot Winry. And don't forget: you _promised_."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered back, clearly displeased with the request.

"Okay bye!"

* * *

"…Bye" Winry hung up the phone quietly. The purr of her cat—Amber—given to her by Alphonse, caught her attention. On her work table among the automail parts and other bits of scattered mechanical miscellaneous, it stared up at her with bright green eyes. Winry forced a smile and petted the perched cat while it raised its volume of purring in response. She looked down at her feet and saw Den staring up at her as well with big brown eyes. Winry crouched down and scratched the canine's head affectionately. "You two are trying to cheer me up, am I right?" she asked. Den whined back in response while Amber mewled.

Winry was fighting a loosing battle as her eyes filled with tears. Tears that she tried so hard to hide from a clearly distressed Alphonse. She lightly touched her stomach where a little life was growing inside her. Yes, she and Al weren't the only ones who would be affected if anything bad happened to Edward.

"Of all the lousy times to get kidnapped, why did it have to be now?" Winry asked herself aloud. _And all I can ever do is wait for you…_ The dam finally crashed open as she started to cry. "Edward you idiot!"

* * *

Once in South City, Alphonse immediately reported to HQ where he was directed to the open tunnel. It was out a ways from the town in the middle of a park reserve. All it took was a flash of his ID and he immediately got started on investigating with the help of his little talent.

"How long will he be standing there?" one of the soldiers asked.

Alphonse tried to ignore the man and concentrate on what he was doing._ Sense the flow of life in the earth. And manipulate the movement of the dolls in accordance with this flow…_

"You be quiet," another soldier snapped, "Major Elric said that he would take time to investigate."

_It's kinda hard to do that when you guys are talking…_

"He can't do that with us breaking his concentration."

_Exactly!_

"How do you know anything is really happening?"

_Hey now, that's mean. I know it seems a little far-fetched but still…_

"Are you questioning our superior?"

_H-hey! No need to pull my rank on him!_

"N-No sir!"

"Hang on," Al said as he opened his eyes. He got closer to the opening to the tunnel. "There's something being released down there…" he mumbled to himself. With a clap of his hands and a metallic ring filling the air, Al pressed his hands to the hole to seal it up. He noticed the look of protest showing in one of the soldier's eyes. "It's too dangerous," he explained. He closed his eyes again to see through the eyes of his golems. He observed the bodies lying around inside the water-filled tunnel and looked on sadly at these fallen comrades. "I'm sorry, but your friends are all dead. They were drowned from what I can tell." He walked over several meters west of his current position and cut in a hole with alchemy. "I'll be back in an hour," he said as he lit his lantern and hopped in.

* * *

Placing a hand on the wall Al focused on trying to sense the water's chi. The flow was different from normal. He couldn't put his finger on how exactly, but he knew it was there. Something bad…

Al closed his eyes and tried to look through his golems on the other side of the wall. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be going on…That is until—

Al sucked in a breath of air as the portions of his split soul reunited with his body. It always happened like that whenever his soul couldn't remain bonded any longer. _What was that?_ He thought. _The water…_ From his avatars, Al saw that something had been added to the water. A cloud of red. As red as blood, the water was dyed.

"What could that mean?" he asked himself. As he continued to focus on the flow of chi, a chill went down his spine like a cold hand. He shivered as he felt it coming from the water. Was there something wrong with it? He couldn't put his finger on the exact reason for the change aside from it being a connection with the change in the water's coloring. Al fished out an empty bottle of water and considered how he was going to safely withdraw the red water.

Then, as he sensed unannounced company nearby, he quickly pulled out a kunai and shot it down the tunnel. Something drew back at the kunai's landing spot.

"Don't even bother trying to sneak up on me," Alphonse warned with narrowed eyes. "I can sense your chi."—He stepped closer toward the innermost part of the tunnel—"So tell me, which sin are you?" He paged though the names of the sins he had yet to reencounter. Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath. Which one was this one?

The evidence of a shadow, creeping from behind him, was enough to reveal to Al which one it was. Al skitted to the left as the shadow shot out at him leaving a cut under his eye. _So a new Pride, huh?_ Al ran further into the tunnel in search of the homunculus itself. If he could find the container, he knew he could have a better chance at beating Pride.

After a while, Al determined that he would be better off dropping his lantern somewhere. He let go of the handle and was left in the dark as the lantern fizzled out and hit the moist earth with a muffled clank.

He closed his eyes to gain more focus on the flow of chi in his surroundings. It didn't take much effort for him to detect Pride's chi. The unsettling mayhem and confusion of the Philosopher's Stone's souls blasted his sixth sense like volts of lightning. He could easily find where the homunculus was, sensing the size and shape of his silhouette. He took note of how there were some parts of the silhouette that showed no chi. Through his sixth sense, Al could see that it almost left a pattern, strange but intricate.

But that was immediately dismissed as soon as Al realized that the homunculus was waiting for him. With some luck, Al could use the experience of his last fight against Selim/Pride to get some leverage with this new Pride. All Alphonse needed to do now was be the first to strike.

xxx

This human was certainly interesting. Pride had stayed a considerable distance away from him and yet he was still found… With no light from the human's lantern, Pride traded control over his shadows for creating his scythe. Then he waited.

Unable to see in the dark, he was almost thrown off when the earth had been transmuted into a clay fist. He clapped his own hands together to neutralize the transmutation and sent it right back. Whether or not it had hit its target was unknown to Pride. He picked up his scythe and swung it towards where he estimated the human's neck would be. The blade met with something hard as stone with an acoustic clang.

Pride stepped back some and tried to seek out the source of the clang. The human hadn't transmuted anything. And Pride was sure that he had at least met with the human's shoulder…

Pride spun the scythe with his right arm and let the handle slide forward in his grip. It slid only far enough to have the human back up a step or two, but not far enough to fall out of Pride's hands before he firmed his grip once more.

The tunnels weren't the best place to fight this human. He jumped around too much and was too forward in his attacks. _A close range fighter from the looks of it,_ Pride thought. That made him a bad combination against Pride's long distance fighting style…

As he made an attempt to swing at Pride's face, Pride gave in and cast aside his scythe. Fighting him was going to be impossible. As Pride ducked to dodge another blow, he clapped my hands once more and firmly planted his hands to the ground. The earth became softer, more unstable under the human's feet. His leg was finally caught in the mud and, taking advantage of that minuscule opening, Pride transmuted the earth to wrap around the human like a snake from the earth to hold him still.

Pride walked past him to where he had laid his scythe. He noticed how they had moved quite a bit. Enough so that we were back near the wall again.

He picked up the unlit lantern slowly. "I don't take any pleasure in killing," Pride explained in a monotone. "But you're too nosy to leave alive." _And too close to the tunnels,_ he added in his head.

He readied his blade to strike at the human. Pride lit the lantern so as to make sure he finished him off this time.

The human was quiet the whole while, so Pride was mildly surprised to hear him suck in a breath of air so suddenly. Pride absent mindedly wondered why for only a second.

He turned around but stopped in his tracks. It was the human's face. His appearance. Eyes laced with gold, lengthened hair—not exactly dirty blond per se, but definitely not even a light brunette. Pride had never seen him before, and yet…he still looked strangely familiar.

As though supporting that feeling, the way the human looked at him; it was as though he felt the same familiarity as Pride had. From surprise, to shock, to fear. Pride was almost unable to follow along with the changes in emotion shown on this human's face.

_Alphonse Elric_

Pride flinched as the name passed through his mind.

But before he could say—let alone do—anything, the corner of his eye caught sight of something glowing. It was an activating transmutation circle. But how!?

Pride wasn't even given a chance to react before the circle fully activated. It caused an immediate explosion, kicking up mud and dirt all around. It felt as though an earthquake was going off. Pride quickly snapped himself out of his state of shock and clapped his hands together. He ran over to the wall to stabilize the tunnel.

As soon as the shaking stopped and the walls were again steady, Pride breathed a faint sigh of relief. But when he turned around…the human—no, Alphonse—was gone.

* * *

There was nothing he could do but run. Alphonse had fought so well against Pride when it was pitch black. Before he saw the homunculus' face.

As soon as he had returned to the surface, he allowed himself the luxury to tremble and shake. His breaths of air quivered no matter how hard he tried to control himself.

_Brother? _The image of Pride's cold, familiar face flashed in his mind. The face of someone who didn't care about the value of life and death._ Was that really him?_ His breathing turned into hyperventilating. His head thumped with each heartbeat, and his forehead was wet with perspiration. Where he had been struck on the side of his cheek and on the right side of his ribs, his body throbbed and pulsed unnaturally. If he had been standing, he probably would've collapsed from shock.

The soldiers ran up to him and tried asking him question after question. Their words were blocked out by images of Pride while the sounds and sensations of the attacks they inflicted each other with bombarded his mind with the recent memory. To be frank…Alphonse wasn't interested in answering his comrades.

* * *

***seriously hoping Al's reaction was good enough***

**Sooo in case you're wondering, when Al was listing off the unencountered sins, he didn't count in Pride since he still considers Selim to technically be Pride. Why he is not, well…you could probably figure it out yourself, but I'll explain in the next chapter anyway soooo… ;D**

**Thank Naruto Shippuden for inspiration behind the fight scene description. Hidan was a sucky scythe user reference (curse you, Jashinist!) compared to—say—Maka Albarn from Soul Eater, but on the other hand, watching Naruto kick butt is always inspiring to me so that made up for it all.**

**Oh and Announcement: So a few weeks ago, I had finally buckled down and written out the cue cards for all the chapters in this series! So I can happily inform you that this series will be 23 chapters long plus an epilogue. So that means we currently have seven chapters down, seventeen more to go!**

**See any mistakes? Let me know. And review, Review, REVIEW!**


	8. Chapter 8

_I'm sorry this took an eternity. You have no idea how crappily my life has treated me. That and I'm slooooow..._

* * *

The ceiling fan spun lazily around and around. It moved so slowly, that it gave off no cool breeze. Either that or Alphonse had just gone that numb. He laid on his bed and stared at the spinning contraption with little interest. The ticking of the wall clock added to the senseless, slow-paced, virtual reality that Al's mindset seemed to be stuck in. Dully, Al contemplated how many seconds of the ticking clock he could count before he'd blink again._ One…two…three…_

Charity's mewling came closer than anything else had to shattering the dream—or nightmare—like state Al was trapped in. He slowly let his eyes trail over to the black ball of fluff. He didn't smile as usual when Charity rubbed her face against his hand. He pet the feline back slowly as Valentine crept into his room with all her grown-into silence. "You must be hungry, huh?"

A deep sigh escaped Al before he could stop it. So far, that was the loudest noise that he's made in his apartment since he got back. "Alright then…" He pulled himself off of bed and headed for his kitchen. It was the middle of the day and Al still hadn't bothered to get dressed—never mind go to work. In fact he hadn't even changed in the first place since he came back the other day.

He laid out some food for his cats, and went to the bathroom. He splashed some water in his face multiple times in hope that it may pull him out of his funk. It didn't do much. He stared at the mirror for a moment and observed how long his hair had gotten.

_'__What'd you cut your hair for, Al?' Ed asked as he entered the bathroom. Apparently, Al's ability to cut his own hair with a weak, unsteady hand left plenty to be desired of his physical strength. Ed quietly observed the messy pile of pale golden hair all over the floor and sink. It looked like a golden tornado had hit the bathroom._

It's too dark to look like Ed's now…

_'__It's too long.' Al explained from his unsteady seat on the counter ledge. 'It feels weird brushing against my back.'_

It gets too easily tangled too…In fact it still did…

_Ed laughed at that comment. 'Awww and here I was hoping we could be twins.'_

"Well it seemed like such a silly reason to grow out my hair even then…" Al muttered to himself as he observed his dirtying blond hair.

_'__No thanks.' Al had deadpanned. 'One Edward Elric is a handful enough for the world to deal with, thank you very much.'_

"Besides, I look nothing like you, Brother…"

_Ed feigned a stab through the heart—though the teasing glint in his eyes told another story. 'Ow! I am hurt, _Little_ Brother.' The two bursted into uncontrollable fits of laughter over what he was implying. From there Ed offered to help fix up Al's hair so that it looked a little closer to how it had been when they were kids…_

The snipping of scissors came as a relief to Al. With his hand being far more steady than back then, he was better at making his hair revert back to its original clean cut. Perhaps his bangs were little longer and less smoothed than last time, but close enough.

He observed the mirror one last time. Hazel, gold laced eyes, a more neatly cut hair style, his common clothes instead of his brother's jacket. The last remnants of any resemblance to his brother now gone.

_Brother…_

He looked at his reflection in the mirror one more time, and slapped himself in the face. "C'mon, Al. Grow up!" he growled as he glared at himself. He'd wasted enough time wallowing in guilt. No more distractions!

Setting aside his own childish desire to hide out in his apartment forever, Al moved himself toward the phone and picked it up. With a strategy already forming in his mind, he dialed a very specific number. Screw phone bills for long-distance calls!

The gears in his head turned while he waited. The ringing on the other end of the line became white noise in the wake of his clamoring thoughts. First he'd have to find a way to fix the tunnels; then he'd find out more about that strange water; and, if he's lucky, he'll put his research to good use for Ed. However, for the first two—and maybe the last as well—he needed to call back a loyal comrade whom he knew he could depend on.

"Hello?" He snapped back to attention as the phone was answered. "I'd like to speak to Emperor Yao…Why?"—a cocky grin spread across Al's face—"Just tell him that a certain State Alchemist I know is still waiting for a member of the Yao clan to pay him back for hotel service…Oh don't worry. He'll know what I mean…"

* * *

No disturbances have occurred since Alphonse came by. Pride didn't know whether he should consider that a good thing or a bad thing.

He had yet to find out what was so off about that human. There was something about him that disturbed Pride. Not necessarily his appearance, or his visible emotions. It was his fighting style. Pride had thought that Alphonse was a close range fighter, but then that last alchemic attack… That was an impossible long-range alchemic attack. But how did he activate it from so far?

And then when Pride had swung at him with his scythe. Alphonse definitely didn't dodge it in time. But he didn't die either. It sounds impossible, but he had set himself up a shield without using any alchemy.

"Having fun daydreaming aren't you pipsqueak?"

Pride glanced towards the familiar voice, having been annoyingly pulled away from his thoughts. Just Envy. "What do you want?" Pride asked him with all the genuine disinterest he could ever so easily muster.

Envy scowled at Pride's reaction—or lack thereof—and Pride had to fight back the smirk that threatened to show itself._ It's so easy to tick him off._

"Father sent me to get you," Envy explained gruffly.

"Fine…" Pride stood up and followed him.

There was no one else in the tunnels, Pride observed. It seems that the military had evacuated all their men out of them to reduce casualties. So typical of humans. Running away with their tail between their legs at the first sign of real danger.

"So I've heard you ran into the Elric brat," Envy said. He seemed to search Pride's eyes for something. Although whatever it was, he didn't seem to find. "I can just imagine what the tin head is doing right now."

Pride barely gave Envy a glance out of the corner of his eye as he observed the sadistic grin that was spread across his face. "Envy, must you chatter so much about humans and their problems?"

"But they're just so amusing. Don't you think they're a _little_ humorous?"

Pride chose not to answer him.

"Or are you just that emotionless?"

_Don't take the bait. Don't take the bait. Don't take the bait…_

He let out a huff after Pride refused to answer him. "You're so boring."

The walk continues on in complete silence, both their bare feet splashing into shallow puddles of tainted water. "…It's not that I don't dislike humans…" …_I took the bait…_ he thought dismally. "…I don't care for them either. It's like what Father says. They are little more than insects… worthless to even a single consideration. So why should it matter whether they're…'amusing' to me or not?"

Before Envy could retort, the two of them had finally arrived. Walking out of the underground passage, Pride went to meet with Father. Approaching the man, he stood quietly before him. "You requested me, Father?" he asked.

Father, sitting on his throne, spoke to Pride, "Yes. It's come to my attention that one of our crests has been scraped clean by the millitary…"

* * *

General Mustang sat at his desk staring off into space. Again.

Risa sighed. He's been doing so more often since the incident. Constantly lost in thought; as though he was waiting for the answer to the world's newest problem to appear before him out of thin air. And the paperwork was certainly suffering as a result.

Colonel Bernhard poked her head into the office. She and Risa shared a look as the female Colonel silently motioned another handful of paperwork towards Mustang's desk. _Is it okay for me to make this delivery?_

Risa nodded. _Yes, it's safe._

Bernhard smiled slightly and stood up straighter as she strode into the room. "General, sir?" Roy barely looked up to acknowledge her presence. She laid the papers onto Mt. Forever Unsigned Documents. "Got you more papers to fill out." She frowned when all Roy did was grunt in reply.

Looking to Risa for guidance, Bernhard sighed. She was way too passive to be dealing with this stuff. "Major Elric has returned from South City," she told him in a low voice. Roy perked up at that new fact and stared at her incredulously._ He seriously didn't know… _she thought half-surprised. "The very fact that he hasn't reported in seems to indicate that he's already found out."

Mustang frowned at her. "Are you trying to imply something, Miss Colonel?"

Bernhard made a face at him. _You know what I mean,_ her eyes said.

Roy looked to Riza and saw that she shared the same look. These women were double-teaming him! Mustang sighed in defeat.

xXxXx

"Lieutenant, remind me why I brought _her_ onto my team?" Roy groaned aloud.

Risa tried to suppress a smile. She and Roy stood just outside of Al's apartment door, and he was just trying to put off the inevitable. "You'd said you needed a new bishop; someone to fill in for Captain Falman."—She shrugged— "No one was better suited for the job than Adaline."

"Well, she's more chipper than I remember…" he grumbled with that lame excuse.

"Of course, sir." Risa proceeded to knock on the door. No answer. She and Mustang glanced at one another. Three more firm knocks on the door. Still nothing. "Alphonse?" Risa called. "Are you home?"

Still no answer.

"Major," Roy called in a louder voice. "You didn't report in to headquarters upon your return. Are you—"

A loud crash sounded from the inside followed by a groan of pain. "C-coming!" The sound of papers and plastics being kicked around came after the sound of something heavy—a rock?—falling from a high place. The door swung open as Al was trying to button up his uniform. "Sorry, sir. I was a little out of it earlier and I—What?" Al blinked as he noticed the shocked looks—uh…scratch that to singular—_look_ on Roy's face (Risa had only been shocked for a moment before regaining her perfected composure). Al brushed aside his bangs to see better. "What's wrong?"

Roy blinked for a moment. "…Alphonse did you cut your hair?"

Al blinked. "Ah! I forgot!" he exclaimed. "Yeah I did. It's not bad is it?"

"No of course not," Risa said.

"Oh good," Al smiled slightly before it was traded for a frown. "General"—he looked at Roy with a critical eye—"down in the tunnels…I saw him."

Roy's normally stoic face wavered for a split second over to something relative to the kind of shock one feels when their darkest secret has been revealed for all the world to see. It was enough confirmation for Al. He had known already.

_I should've known…_Al thought dismally. "Why don't you come on in?" Al offered kindly. "I'll give you an immediate oral report about what I saw in the tunnels."

xXxXx

Alphonse moved onto the floor the pile of books he had accidentally established earlier that day. "Sorry," he apologized. "I was a little too preoccupied to keep all my things in order." He forced a smile and ushered them to sit at the table, while he rummaged through one of the lower cabinets. "I haven't gathered enough information yet, so these theories might be a little shaky at best." He pulled out a small green box, big enough to hold only a standard sized perfume bottle, and laid it on the table. After seating himself he opened it up and pulled out a small vial. A red liquid sloshed around in it as Al shook it slightly. He held it up for the two officers to observe. "Do you know what this is?"

Even though the question seemed to be directed to both of them, Riza, knowing that Al was really asking Roy, kept silent. Roy stayed quiet for a moment as the stared at the red liquid in recognition and shock. "Is that—Is that a Philosopher's Stone?"

"No, but you're close." Al set it on the table and stared at the red liquid for a fleeting moment. "It's a substance called Red Water; the building block of Red Stones."

"Red Stones?"

"They're something Brother and I had stumbled upon while on our journey," Al explained. "It is a separate, artificially made alchemical amplifier. While it is based off the Philosopher's Stone, it's not quite as powerful as the real deal. And I should note that it is certainly less durable as well. You've heard about what happened to the tunnels right?"

Roy nodded. "I've picked up enough information about it by now to have a good idea of what's going on."

"Good. Well, before you came by, I'd just finished talking it over with the leading researcher on Red Water—Russell Trigham—about the possibility of the Red Water being mass produced into the tunnel-turned-irrigation system. The two of us have agreed that it's possible."

"What does that have to do with the tunnels?" Mustang asked irritably.

"Red Water is extremely toxic. A small quantity alone can easily kill a grown man in little time," Al continued with eyes lowered to gaze at the vial. He activated his sixth sense and felt the pulse around the bottle. "Furthermore…it has the chi of a war zone." Blood. Anger. Chaos. Death. It was almost as though it was the manifestation of hell itself…

"A what?"

Al's eyes flicked back into focus as he realized what he'd just said. "Sorry. That was my inner Alkahestrist talking." He laughed sheepishly. "Anyway, the toxicity is so horrible that keeping any men nearby the tunnels is practically a death sentence." Which makes the withdrawal of men a good thing. "It's the perfect way to keep anybody from interfering, don't you agree?"

Upon realization of what Alphonse was implying, Roy stood up off his seat—nearly knocking it over. "So you mean—"

"However they're planning on recreating the Promised Day, they now have a fool proof method of keeping us 'meddlers' in check." A mischievous grin crossed Al's face and lit up his gold laced eyes after he'd finished that sentence. "At least, that's what they think."

Roy eyed his subordinate dangerously. "Major. What are you planning?"

"Nothing as bad as what Brother would've planned," he said in a matter-of-fact tone as he placed the vial back into its container. After putting it away, Al turned and faced his commanding officer with a serious look on his face. "General, sir," he said with a formal salute. "Forgive me but, forgoing any official consent, I have personally invited the Xingese ambassador to come to Amestris in order to seek the assistance of a fellow Alkahestrist. In three day's time I will be at the East City station to meet with the said ambassador. As such, I will have to put off my research project for some time if that is okay with you, sir."

Roy returned his salute. "That will be fine, Major."

"Oh and one more thing." Roy nodded for Al to go on. "I was wondering whether Pri—er Selim has come out of his coma yet?" He cringed at his own impulsive self-correction.

"Not from what I know."

Al deflated as disappointment set in. He had hoped to speak with Selim and perhaps get some answers to his most pressing questions. "Oh…" He tried to lighten his own voice a bit, "Well, I'd like to be the first to know when he does if that isn't too much to ask."

"Will do, Major," Roy replied.

* * *

Emperor Ling Yao sat on his throne and waited as patiently as he could. But that was kind of hard to do. Even at twenty-one he was still too fidgety, he noted as he tapped his fingers against the arm of the well-detailed, ancient piece of furniture. What he wouldn't give to just go over to wherever his half-sister was instead of having her come to him. Stupid formalities.

He perked up as soon as the doors swung open. Finally, his younger half-sister hurried in—dressed in formal Xingese garments as is proper for having an audience with the Emperor. However, much to Ling's amusement, she had purposely forgone the heavy makeup like he had suggested, sticking with only light makeup and little to no powdering. Man, were his advisers—who were probably as ancient as his cedar throne—getting a kick out of that bit of seemingly defiant informality. But hey, at least she was still wearing the rogue lipstick and the kimono.

She approached his throne and gave a low bow to him, with her braids falling slightly out of place as a result. "You called for me, Your Majesty?"

"Yes I did," Ling said with a nod. He turned to his advisers. "I'd like to speak privately with the Princess." And with that, the men ushered themselves out of Ling and the Princess's presence, although not without small murmurs of complaint echoing off the walls of the vast throne room.

After they all left, Ling dropped the formalities and smiled at his half-sister. "Don't mind them." He forwned as the Princess stayed in a kneeling position. "C'mon if stay like that your back's going to hurt."

"Oh sorry, Your Majesty," the Princess muttered sheepishly as she straightened herself out.

"May," he chided. "I thought we went over this. What's my name?"

May gave him a dry look. "I know what your name is, Ling."

"Then use it," he said with a mock whine. "Or at least call me something fun like 'Nii-san'."

"N-no no, just 'Ling' is good enough for me," May stuttered with a frantic wave.

"Oh alright," Ling said as he leaned back. "Now"—a mischievous smile crossed the young emperor's face—"on to business. Your dearest Prince Alphonse has just called me up." Ling tried and failed to suppress a snicker as he saw his half-sister turn a deep red behind the pale powder.

"D-Don't call him that!" she cried defensively with a deep blush graced upon her face.

"Anyhoo," he continued in a sing-song voice, "he's asked for you to come to Amestris. It's apparently a matter of national security."

May raised an eyebrow, and stared at him questioningly. "Such as?"

"That's the thing…"—Ling crossed his arms as concern caused him to furrow his brows—"he was incredibly vague about it. Almost as though he was trying to keep the wrong people from hearing our conversation."

May frowned. That was certainly odd coming from Alphonse—someone whom she had gotten the opportunity to better understand within the time of teaching him Alkahestry. He was always so open…

"So!" Ling clapped his hands together as he put back on his usual optimistic grin. "Pack your bags and ready the horses, May Chang. You're going to Amestris!"

* * *

_Oh look at that…I tried to show a little more of Pride's cold persona that he developed as opposed to Ed's personality. It kinda turned out meh but it works._

_And I'm going to be completely honest with myself. I don't do evil. And I _especially_ don't do Envy (writing him/her/it[?] gives me a headache)._

_ The whole conversation between Ling and May was kind of a last minute idea. Because otherwise, we were going to see little to no Ling Yao love at all in this series. And every FMA FanFiction series could use a dose of the great Ling Yao to keep the darker parts at bay, am I right?_

_ I'm hoping to pick things up from here. Wish me luck!_

_-Tenchiko_


	9. Arc 3: Watered Down Fireflies

_Happy (early) Independence Day! What are you patriotic guys up to?_

_ AN UPDATE JUST IN TIME! *Whoops like a cowboy* WOOOOOOT!_

_Hey does anyone think I might have made Al just a bit OP? 'Cuz I've been starting to get some OP vibes off of writing him. Just saying._

_So I went and looked back just for fun, and I found out…my longest chapter in this series was chapter 2. Twenty-two freaking pages, people! WTH!? And this one was thirteen pages! Have fun!_

* * *

"No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories."

[Because] "The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain.

It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared."

― Haruki Murakami, _Kafka on the Shore_ and Lois Lowry, _The Giver_

* * *

Arc 3: Watered Down Fireflies

* * *

It all looked the same. The train whizzed past the heaping sand dunes and the occasional cactus plant as it had been for the past twenty four hours. The sweltering heat from the outside, which was already plaguing the desert this early in the morning, was being pretty efficiently kept at bay inside the train car. And, of all people, May Chang knew just how bad the desert could get at this time of year.

She cringed at the memory of her first trip to Amestris by foot._ I_ really_ must've been desperate,_ she thought. She had gone through all the pains and toils that the desert had to offer just to cross the border. The blistering sand running between her exposed toes had been almost too much for her. Every watering hole was practically a godsend. And immediately after making it, those people at the Youswell Coal mine were so kind to her. She smiled fondly at the memory.

Xiao Mei, her faithful panda companion, snuggled closer to her and made a purring sound. May ran her fingers through the animal's soft fur. _Xiao Mei was beginning to grow,_ May noted. Once upon a time, the panda was small enough to ride on her shoulder. Now she was the size of an adult house cat, making for a snug fit on May's lap. How long would it be before she was too big for May to take with her on her travels?

"Oh, Xiao Mei!" she suddenly cried, hugging the furry creature. "What would I do without you!?"

"Up already, Princess?" a feminine voice asked from behind her.

May turned and nodded sheepishly at her escort. "Yep." Ashamed, she bowed and said, "Again I'm really sorry that you had to come with me, Lan Fan."

Lan Fan waved away her concerns. "Don't worry about it. It was His Majesty's orders."

May crossed her arms and scowled while Xiao Mei copied her movements. "I still can't believe that Ling doesn't trust me to handle myself. I've traveled to Amestris before for goodness sake! And practically on my own that time!"

"You know him," Lan Fan said simply, "You should be honored that the Emperor finds such favor in you."

"I guess…"

"Besides," Lan Fan continued on with a knowing smile, "I believe you'll be too preoccupied keeping certain fiancés from getting too intimate with you to handle yourself on this trip."

May visibly turned red at the comment. "H-he's not! That was totally an accident and he still doesn't even realize what had happened!"

"And yet you still did Hui Li," she said with a glint in her eyes.

May and Lan Fan stared at each other silently until May finally crossed her arms and huffed. "Ling put you up to this, didn't he?"

"He might of implied it…" she said remembering their little conversation before the train had left. Something between the lines of _"Constantly, remind them of the promise made at New Years."_

The train let out another loud whistle and it continued to whizz on in the desert. _Oh look,_ May thought wryly, _there goes a scraggly tree._

* * *

There was already a bouquet of flowers on the grave. Peonies and wild flowers were gently bound up in pale pink tissue paper. Probably Elicia's handiwork. Al smiled sadly, a bundle of flowers for the grave in his own hand, as he read the writing etched onto the grave.

Maes Hughes

1885—1914

"Well, Mr. Hughes, it looks like Brother and I have gotten ourselves into quite a fix again." He laughed ruefully. "So can I have your full support on this one?"

The wind suddenly picked up and seemed to wrap him into a hug. His hair was ruffled as the wind blew against it. He could practically hear Hughes' reply in the whistling wind. _"Of course!"_ he'd exclaim with a grin. _"Just be careful out there. Keep this with you while you're at it."_ With that, he'd gleefully shove another picture of Elicia into Al's hand. _"A darling little face like this'll keep your spirits up for sure!"_

Al smiled at the thought. "Thanks…that means a lot to me."

"Visiting Hughes?" Mustang asked as he stopped next to Al.

He nodded. "Yup. Might as well before I head out, you know?"

The two stood there for several minutes, silently paying their respects to their fallen comrade. There were few people that passed by the two; likely on their way to visit the graves of their own loved ones. It was as dead silent as any other graveyard.

"Why didn't you tell me as soon as you'd found out?" Al suddenly asked. Roy didn't answer; instead, avoiding eye contact with Al at all costs and just looking on at the grave of his closest friend. Al eyed him carefully before continuing on. "You did the same thing back then. When Mr. Hughes passed away. Even back then, I couldn't understand why you would hide something so important from us."

Still nothing; no answer, no retort. He just heaved a deep sigh. After a stretch of silence passed, Roy suddenly said, "…It's funny, you know?" Al looked at him, seeing the rueful smile on his commanding officer's face. "After the Promised Day, I had gone to your hospital room in hopes of seeing you in the flesh for the first time. Fullmetal had told me that you weren't in the beset of shape, but still…I hadn't been prepared to see you like that; a frail, sickly shadow of the boy in the armor who became emotional over the slightest of things." Al frowned. He had no idea where this was going. "I suppose the reason I didn't tell you was…because I didn't want to hurt that frail little boy I saw in the hospital that day."

Al opened his mouth to say something, but then clamped it shut. He thought about it for a moment in a careful manner before saying anything. "Sounds like such a simple reason, sir."

Roy smirked in that special way of his and shrugged. "Don't be so surprised, Major. I thought you had realized by now. We soldiers are _always_ simple in our reasoning."

"Sir! General Mustang!"

Al and Roy both turned at the soldier's voice. The uniform clad man gave a sharp salute which the two alchemists returned.

"What is it, Corporal?"

The unnamed Corporal answered with a voice tightly laced in urgency, "The town of Riviere has just received reports of sudden attacks."

"Have any sighted attackers been identified?"

"None, sir."

"General," Al said in a lowered voice, "Do you think it's…"

Roy met eyes with Al and the two knew what the other was thinking. Roy knew what Al was up to just as Al knew Roy's answer. "Well, Major, Riviere was under your jurisdiction."

Al grinned and gave a picture perfect salute. "Yes sir!"

* * *

Riviere was a small city with a population of about an estimated one hundred thousand, renown for its historical importance and abundance of historical artifacts. It's recorded to have been the site of Amestris' first war by the earliest settlers of the country in July of year 1558. There had been no declaration of war, and the Conquest of Riviere serves as the first major point in Amestrian history as well as the first act of aggression in their long, militant legacy. Furthermore, it was the first place that had been purified of it's blood crest in the ongoing program of fixing the damage caused by the homunculus; a program that is currently headed by the Armored Alchemist.

x

The clattering and chattering of people, all on the move towards somewhere, was like a catchy song that defined the city. Laughing children ran up and down the streets playfully, with hop scotch and jumping ropes as their greatest form of entertainment. They served as the melody to this city symphony. The humming and droning of cars and other machinery was the harmony. Every time the vehicles bounced over a speed bump or a pothole, it became the tempo for the Rivere's song.

This was how one little boy saw Riviere. It was all so commonplace to him. Something that seemed unbreakable to he who had been a part of it since birth. He ran over to the fruits stand where an older woman was waiting for him. "A little late today, aren't you?" she asked with a smile.

Red cheeked from the running, the brunette boy grinned back. "Sorry." He handed a sum of money to the graying woman. "Apples, please."

"Has Caleb been holing himself up in his study again?" she asked as she filled a bag with apples for the boy.

The boy adverted his eyes. "Maaaaaaybe."

The woman sighed dramatically and handed him the apples. "Oh, Asher, what are we going to do with that one?"

Asher only giggled. "Can't do much for him, huh?"

"I suppose not. Now, hurry on home. I can trust that you won't let him run himself ragged in that musty ol rat hole."

"Yes ma—" Just then, a shrill shriek cut into the commonplace civilian clatter like a knife. Everyone stopped in the middle of whatever they were doing as the screaming became louder. Looking south of the city, Asher was among the first to notice the river of blood that drained toward them. As the screaming came closer, as it's sound strengthened in numbers, splattering blood added to the the river, and it seemed to become stronger and more chaotic.

The song's spell had been broken…and now hell was in control.

Asher backed up a step, eyes locked on the splatters of blood. "What—"

"Asher, go to Caleb." Asher looked up to see the elderly woman standing over him, like a hen shielding her chick from the flames. Her face was strained with fear, but still rigid with enough determination to instruct him firmly. "Go now!"

Asher nodded and made a run for it. He didn't question whether she would be okay. What would she be doing? Would he ever see her again?

The screaming continued behind him. Children began to screech in fear and mothers filled the air with their mournful wails. Everyone was running in the same direction; toward the northern part of the city. Pushing, shoving, cursing, anything was done to get out of the city's heart.

Asher almost stumbled past his house, a small one story building that had stood there for ages. He ran inside and stomped across the wood boards. He had dropped his bag of apples somewhere on the way. He passed the hallway that had photos of it's inhabitants nailed to them. Asher tried not to imagine how the cases of these precious memories could possibly be destroyed any minute now. Perhaps even stained with blood beyond recognition. "Caleb! Caleb!"

"The study!" the one named Caleb called.

Asher ran in as Caleb, a studious male just meeting his early twenties, was making his way out of his study; a dark room lit only by a single lamp, the desk—one of the few furnishings that occupied the room—was still littered with papers and notes as is typical. Caleb saw the look of pure fear on Asher's face and hurried over to him. He kneeled down to Asher's level and gave the child's hands a reassuring squeeze. "What's going on?"

Asher tried to calm down his hysteria enough so that his words were intelligible. "I-I don't know. T-there was blood and s-screaming and—"

**_Crash!_**

* * *

Al kept tapping on the side of the train car impatiently. "C'mon c'mon c'mooooon…"

The men who came along to assist in neutralizing the attack shared questioning looks as the young Major took to pacing between the two lines of seats. Impatience was not something they were used to seeing in a soldier…Then again, Major Elric was mostly a researcher. He only took on his duties as a soldier in the case of an emergency. But still…his jittery pacing continued on for a few more minutes until the train suddenly stopped.

It was so abrupt that Al almost fell over. "What's going on?" he asked as he pulled himself up.

"You might wanna see this, sir," one of the soldiers nearby a car window answered.

Al moved over to where the man was standing and peeked out. There was the cause. A fifty meter wall surrounded the city with neither an entrance nor an exit. Al gawked for a minute before wondering aloud, "How'd we ever miss that?" He quickly jumped out of the now-still train car. Up closer, the wall was even more massive, more foreboding. Dark gray clouds and strong winds were giving a warning for incoming rain. With such a scene from above, the walls were like a coffin for thousands.

Alphonse put his hands against the wall and felt for people on the other side. The presence of countless lives shrieking in fear before being silenced made his digits clench and he trembled uncontrollably. He had to pull away and take in a deep breath before continuing. Two figures within the heart of this chaos had the presence of another thousands of lives, trapped in purgatory, compressed inside their bodies. One of the two in particular, he faintly recognized above the others…

Al stepped back to calculate what it would take to get through the massive wall. _It doesn't take a genius to conclude that the Laws of Conservation of Mass, one of the two basic laws of Equivalent Exchange, was bypassed to create this,_ Al thought as he ran his hand against the walls. _That means…_ There were traces of alchemical markings from a recent transmutation still remaining on it. _There was a Philospher's Stone involved…_ He spun on his heel and turned to one of the men. "Is there any chance that we can contact any of the MPs from within?"

One of the men manning a communications radio answered, "Unfortunately, no. No one is answering our radio calls."

"Shoot…" Al sighed as reached into his back pockets. "Guess we're on our own." After finding what he was after, he looked around nervously, unsure whether he would be asking for too much. "By any chance, does anyone have a crossbow?"

* * *

Blood now stained his hands undoubtedly. Oddly enough though, it disturbed him more than he liked to admit. Surrounded by corpses of humans, Pride absently noted how the city would someday soon become a graveyard for many bodies.

_'__This is wrong…' _came a whisper.

"Isn't this great, Pride?" Envy asked with a sneer from behind him.

_'__This isn't a game…' _it insisted.

He chose not to answer as he caught sight of movement in a nearby house.

"Looks like there are a few left behind over here," Envy said as he leaned an elbow on Pride's shoulder. He grinned sadistically at Pride. "We can't leave a single one left."

"…I know…" Pride slowly moved toward the house as the shadows beneath him began to creep about like living serpents. "Continue to corner the humans towards the north. I'll look for stragglers."

_'__These are human lives…' _Pride couldn't identify where these thoughts were coming from. He tried to ignore it.

Within the house, there were two people. A frightened child and an adult. Pride manipulated his shadows so that they surrounded the two, all the blades aiming to impale them from all sides. The older man seemed to sense what was going to happen, as he immediately pulled the little boy closer to himself. "It won't make any difference," Pride told him, "You two will die. Albeit I can't promise that it will be a painless one."

_'__No…'_

The man only gritted his teeth and tightened his embrace, all the while the child whimpered in a sad attempt to hold back sobs. The man muttered words of reassurance as he too seemed to wait for the inevitable.

Pride felt a sense of tightness in his chest at the sight. A sense of identification to this kind circumstance. The image of a room drenched in blood flashed into his mind, but it left as quickly as it came. However the feeling of pain didn't leave quite as quickly.

_'__I don't want to do it!'_

Pride flinched as the thought came to him. _What was that!?_ It was like he had been yelling at someone else in his mind.

Upon realization that nothing had been done to them yet, the man looked up while keeping the child's head down so he, at least, wouldn't see. The two individuals met eyes, cold, dulled gold clashing against uncertain seafoam green. Pride wasn't sure wether the man could see it or not, but there was now an inner conflict raging within himself. And a single conclusion came out on top. _'This…this is murder!'_

Pride suddenly clapped his hands together and created his scythe. He grabbed the handle of the scythe, spun it around like a baton, and pointed the blade at the man. Neither of the two broke eye contact from one another, and even the child seemed to sense that something had changed. The shadows were still pinned in their direction, but something within the air itself had altered.

Pride only said one thing as he neared the blade closer to the man, "Make a choice…"

* * *

Al fired a shot at the wall. And then another and another. He fired them until he had a kunai pinned on all five corners.

"Thanks a lot," he said as he handed the crossbow back to one of the men. Then he took a piece of chalk and created the Alkahestric purification circle. With the markers in place, he quickly activated the circle and connected the flow of chi to the markers on the wall.

As a result, a portion of the wall exploded, creating a hole big enough for them to enter through. As soon as the dust cleared though, Al was shocked at the sight. Corpses littered the ground, some even leaning against the wall as though they had been trying to escape before they died. Men, women, and children alike were battered and cut up into pieces. It had been a massacre.

Al wasn't sure when he'd finally started moving. He only knew that he'd eventually moved from the entrance to kneel before the corpse of a small little girl. Even though she held no resemblance, she somehow still reminded Al of another little girl he had once known. "Oh…god…" His breathing quivered as the blood-stained streets became wet with rain. A flash of lightning cut through the sky, making the city look like the aftermath of a battle ground.

One of the men said in a whisper, "There are so many…it'll take ages to bury them all."

"Finding survivors takes priority," Al suddenly stated as the first drops of rain hit the pavement. He didn't know why, but he had a sinking feeling he knew which of the homunculi had done this. And he really didn't want to find out wether or not he was right. He stood up straight and tried to remember the way he'd seen General Mustang take command many times before. "Everyone, go in groups of three. Please, don't go anywhere near the buildings unless you see a living person inside, and, even then, either coax them out or notify me. If my theory is correct, these buildings are hot spots." Al activated his sixth sense as he tried to detect the two with the odd presence. "I'll be handling those."

Al didn't wait to hear any replies as he ran ahead and tried to find any living people. The city had been completely altered from how it had been when Al had last visited. Smaller walls had been constructed at random everywhere by the city's attackers. He reached out to try and sense any survivors within any of the sub-walls. So far, he could find nothing but decaying corpses.

_They had been cornered…Then killed…_

The flicker of chi caught his attention from the northern part of the walled city. A small shred of life in the midst of this silent battleground. And a presence of a thousand compressed souls nearby it… Al moved double time in that direction.

* * *

Pride tightened the makeshift bandage around the wound and cut the excess cloth before leaving the building. "Stay there and don't move…" he instructed quietly.

He hadn't even left the small house when Alphonse Elric had arrived. His hair, now mysteriously cut short, and his clothes were now wet as Pride's was becoming with each drop of rain. The two stood there silently, taking in the other's presence as the rain poured down on them. Alphonse's breathing was ragged and he seemed to be in the midst of an internal conflict. A flash of lightning made the two's faces—one stoic and uncaring while the other was wide-eyed with horror—more decipherable as the silence stretched on. Oblivious to the chilling raindrops, Pride observed the human, trying to conceal his curiosity as to why Alphonse was here in the first place. _This boy…_

"Why, Brother?"

Pride wondered why Alphonse used such a familiar term. Who was he referring to? There was only the two of them, wasn't there?

Alphonse looked around, and, only then, did Pride also notice the disarray of carnage. It had been a blood bath that nature was now attempting to wash clean… "Why!?" his voice became louder that time as anger became the dominant emotion. But he couldn't hide the tears that threatened to come forth. "These were innocent lives! You've always said that killing was wrong, but now you've—"

Alphonse clapped his hands together and pressed them to the earth. The terra firma beneath Pride began to split. He quickly jumped out of the way and Alphonse wasn't that far behind him. Pride quickly swung his scythe at Alphonse and came close to landing a hit. Al ducked under the blade and moved closer to Pride in order to assert a physical blow.

Pride took to using his shadows in order to attack. Alphonse quickly jumped back as one came near to his eye. After moving a safe distance away, he took on a defensive stance. He quietly began to anticipate Pride's next move. Al glared at Pride as he slowly shifted his position.

Pride sent a large number of shadows in an attempt to brutally immobilize Alphonse. The black blades went for his sides, his arms, his legs, and one even for the side of his face. In the split second it took for them to make contact with Alphonse and push him into a wall, they all seemed to skid past him—although his clothes were still shredded from the impact. A sound—like that of two blades crossing one another, sharpening each other—was an indication to Pride that something strange was going on again.

His eyes widened as he saw Alphonse's flesh through the shreds of cloth. The skin was black, not a scratch was there. Graphene.

"I can understand why you're so surprised. Not very many people know yet that I can do this," Al said as he moved his hand to cover the part of his flesh that Pride was staring at. After he lifted his hand away, it slowly returned to normal human skin. "You have Greed to thank for leaving behind the secret of his Ultimate Shield."

"Major Elric, where are you!?"

Alphonse flinched at the sudden interruption. "Hang on don't come near! I—"

Pride didn't linger to hear him finish. He sent a barrage of shadows toward Alphonse in a last ditch effort to land a hit. The side of Alphonse's face was cut, and he reeled back. It was then that Pride decided to take his leave. He clapped his hands and created an explosion by transmuting the ground.

Alphonse tried to shield himself from the flying rubble as he called out, "No! Wait!"

x

Al couldn't understand how his brother could've done this. He began to question how he could possibly have what it takes to turn his brother back to normal. Would Ed even want to come back after this?

_I'm sorry…_

Al searched for his brother's flow of chi._ Northward…_ Al absently noted how even his brother's presence wasn't the same anymore.

_I'm sorry…_

Suddenly he noticed, that the flicker of chi he had sensed earlier was still there. He looked over to the small house that Pride had come out of. Someone was still there. "'Finding survivors takes priority'…" he reminded himself.

_I'm sorry…_

He entered the house, dark and depressing, and went toward the candlelight of chi.

_I'm sorry…_

He froze when he saw the corpse of a man around his age sprawled on the floor. Blood pooled around his body, and Al tried not to feel sick at the sight of his corpse. He had been completely cut in half…

_I'm sorry…_

Small whimpers reached Al's ears. He turned and looked over to the desk. Under the desk was a small form, shivering and trembling in fear. A flash of lightning made it clearer for only a moment. It was a child, possibly ten or older, with his seafoam green eyes bright and alert, his cheeks wet with tears. He watched Alphonse carefully, like a cornered animal, before saying in a voice that was hoarse from improper usage, "H-hello?"

Al hurried over to the boy. He kneeled down to get a better look at the child's condition, ignoring how the little one cowered at his sudden approach. He observed how the boy's legs were both wrapped with crimson-stained bandages. "Can you stand?" he asked.

The boy slowly shook his head. "N-no. T-they hurt too much. I-I can't—" His train of speech trailed off as Alphonse slowly pulled the child into a hug. Al's breaths were quivered as he tried not to cry, although he had many reasons to be in mourning. In mourning for the people whose lives have been taken because of his actions. In mourning for the man who must've been this child's parent or guardian, leaving him an orphan. In mourning for what his foolishness has done to his brother.

"Mister?" the boy asked as the tears from them both began to flow.

"Forgive me…" Alphonse whispered to no one in particular. "I'm so sorry."

* * *

_Wow this was depressing. More depressing than chapter two of my new Bluebird's Illusion series Transient Redemption. (__Free rainbows to anyone who checks it out)_

_The fight scene turned out pretty good if you ask me. Let me know if you think I was too slow going, or too violent._

_Slight Fullmetal Alchemist: Sinful Corruptions reference anyone? Uhhh eh heh heh heh See, I—never mind… *sulks in the corner for unintentional fan fiction referencing* I wasn't even going for that and it's still there…Oh well, it's not like I'll be all sadistic about it or even give Al any *looks up what SweetheartedSadist calls it* Alpha Tele Waves Manipulation (?) powers. (I don't even fully understand what the hell that even is.)_

_Fifty meters might be an AoT/SnK reference to the Walls (primarily Wall Maria)? Kinda? *screams randomly* ATTACK ON MICHAL BAY! (and to a lesser extent, ATTACK ON TALL PEOPLE! [Love you, Vic]) *sigh* Well in any case, I suppose all Al really needed was *incoming spoilers* for a certain dude named Bertolt Hover to bite himself, become the Colossal, and—*dodges a barrage of Italy's tomatoes thrown by angry SnK Fans who only follow the anime for some reason*_

_SnK Fans: SHUT UP WITH THE SEASON TWO SPOILERS! DX_

_Me: READ THE MANGA FOR GOODNESS SAKE! DX_

_I tried to keep the ellipses (…) to a minimum I swear! TT-TT_

_Sorry for the rambling. I hope you liked this chapter (because I almost broke my glasses while writing it! XD), and remember to review to let me know if anything read like crap._

**_-Tenchiko_**


	10. Chapter 10

_Short chapter is short. I was going to add more, but I wasn't feeling up to it. My last writing session was awful. While I was proofreading this, I came this close to trashing the whole thing! First I find our that I accidentally created to identical pages that have received two separate proofreading sessions (don't ask how that happened) so I had to figure out how to merge those two papers together (which was no walk in the park btw); second I find out that I have been misspelling some words while typing fast (which sucked); then I somehow put my backspace on lock so I almost lost a lot of my chapter, and GAAAH! ASDFGHJKLQWERTYUIOPZXCVNM! *Road rage* Anyhoo…_

_The other day I noticed something about my fanfics…I FORGOT TO WRITE ANY FREAKING DISCLAIMERS! WTF, Tenchiko!? So I shall fix that at the beginning of both fics very soon. Until then:_

_I am not Hiromu Arakawa, I am not a cow dressed in only underwear and specks, and I was not a Chinese collage student back in 2003 (in fact, I was only three years old back then. I didn't even know what the heck Fullmetal Alchemist was at that point in my life—never even heard of it! XD). So Fullmetal Alchemist—and any Bluebird's Illusion references I may make—are not my property. Hiromu Arakawa and Neoland Ocean-X deserve their rightful credit! That is all *bows*_

* * *

There was a flood of individuals wandering along the planked walkway. Mothers were leading their children though the walkway in a formation like that of a row of ducks; men were calling out to one another and carrying luggage for their traveling companions; friends, families, and lovers were greeting one another as they stepped off the train. The trains whistled loudly as they came and went out of the station.

May walked up and down the area as she tried to find Al's chi. Independent and spontaneous just like him. That was the best way to describe it. It stuck out from other's and she was just barely catching wisps of it.

"Patience, Princess," Lan Fan assured her.

"I know but—"

"May!" a familiar voice called.

May spun around and smiled brightly at her dear friend. She ran as fast as she could over to him and jumped into his arms. "Alphonse-sama!" she exclaimed as she gave him a hug. She tried to ignore how subdued his behavior was compared to before.

"Nice too see you too," Al commented as he returned the hug and put her down. Xiao Mei, who still clung to his arm, made a purring sound and Al smiled slightly. "Hey there, girl."

"Alphonse," Lan Fan said with an edge to her voice. She looked so nervous and rigid, May wondered how she could've missed it. "What's going on?"

Al immediately dropped his smile. "You noticed too?"

Lan Fan nodded. May frowned in confusion until she cleared her mind and felt it too. Something was crawling under the earth again. Writhing in agony within a sea of bloodlust. May tried not to tremble at the feeling.

Al gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as he sensed her apprehension. "_Why don't we speak about it in private_?" he asked her in Xingese.

* * *

Al led the two young women into an empty train car. Neither of the two seemed to have changed very much, Al noted.

Lan Fan, while she'd set aside her mask, was still in her Xingese uniform of black, completely covered from head to toe. She seemed to have been doing an excellent job at maintaining her automail arm. Not a scratch marred the shine of it's gunmetal steel plating. Al absently wondered why she was here while Ling was surely still in Xing.

May sat herself down on one of the seats and made room for Al to sit beside her. She had grown the most since he'd first met her compared to the others. Even now, he could still remember being drop kicked by that adorable little girl back then. She had grown considerably since then and had already developed a feminine hourglass shape. She had certainly matured—although her wide, dark eyes shone as brightly as ever. Staring back at him…

"What's wrong Alphonse?" May suddenly asked. Al hadn't even realized that he had been staring!

"Oh uh nothing!" he said all too quickly. He wondered whether it was actually getting hot in the train car or he was just burning from embarrassment. Hopefully the first one…

After a stretch of silence, May finally said in Xingese, "_What's happened_?"

Al frowned, hesitant to retell everything that's happened. "_…Where do I begin_?" He explained everything from his return to Central after the wedding to the latest incident in Riviere. May and Lan Fan listened in reverent silence as he recounted finding only one survivor. "_All the information I have is limited to my observations and what Asher told me_," he explained. He combed through his hair as the stress threatened to give him a headache. "_No one saw it coming until it was too late… It's all my fault_."

"_Al,_" May said softly in an attempt to ease his burden. "_A purification circle that could eradicate the blood crests; you and I both worked on that theory…_" she held his hand without a second thought. "_If you're at fault then so am I._"

Al didn't answer—lacking the energy to argue—but instead only looked out the train window. No one spoke as the train whizzed past rolling hills and small towns. Al could tell that the two girls were waiting for him to break the silence. He heaved a deep sigh that made May flinch in surprise beside him. "That boy…I don't know much about his history or his relation with his legal guardian—Caleb Renault—but I know that he's now completely alone. He has no living relatives, and any capable adults whom he'd known before…they're all dead too." He sighed again in frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose. May opened her mouth to say something, but Al beat her to it. "He took damage to his spinal cord and portions of his nervous system. I've checked…it's beyond repair." He glanced to the side and saw the shock showing in May's face. "He said that…the way Brother put it"—Al felt sick at the very thought—"it was so he wouldn't get a third chance; he wouldn't be able to run away again."

The air around them stilled and silence, aside from the pumping of the train engine, overtook the car. No one spoke up. And that was fine with Al. He wasn't feeling up to hearing words of reassurance or confidence about how this nightmare could end.

He was pulled away from his brooding at the sight of May's outstretched hand. His eyes trailed over to her face, which stared back at him soberly. "Your research notes"—she made a _"hand it over"_ motion—"maybe a fresh set of eyes should take a look at them."

Al blinked before he robotically reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather bound notebook. He handed the notebook over to her and watched as she gave his writing a critical eye. He had coded the notes, but that had never stopped May from deciphering the basics of its contents. She hummed as she turned the pages to his latest notes. "So these marks"—she tapped on the page with Al's rough sketch of the tattoos he had seen on his brother's body—"You think there might be some alchemic significance to them, right?"

Al nodded numbly. "I-I guess I—"

"I wish I could've seen them for myself," she continued on, "I'm no Alchemist, but I understand the basic principles of your usage of symbols. If we could get a better look at them and put them under a category…" She tapped the edge of her lips as she read on. And thus, this continued on, her shooting questions and suggestions while Al tried to follow her fast moving-mind. The rest of the train ride continued in that manner until the group found themselves finally in Central Station.

The three stepped off the train and made their way through the ocean of people. May insisted on reading through Al's notes and—hey—who was he to argue? He watched as she weaved through the crowds, her nose still buried in his notebook, as though it was child's play. The ability to sense the flow of chi on autopilot certainly had its perks. Al checked the time on his pocket watch. "It's almost two," he said. "My apartment isn't too far off. I think I can make us something for a late lunch."

He offered a hand to carry May's bag, seeing how she was struggling to read with one hand and carry it with her other hand at the same time, but Lan Fan took it before he could. There was an oddly familiar glint in her eyes that Al couldn't quite place. "I can take these to your apartment. Why don't you and the princess look a little closer into those notes of yours?" she offered.

"Are you sure?" Al asked. She nodded. "O-Okay. My address is—"

"It's the house with the Xingese red banner over the door, is it not?" she asked. Al nodded but nearly jumped when he heard the sound of May tripping and face planting onto the concrete.

"May!" Al went over to help her up. He couldn't help but notice how she clumsily covered her face with his book. "Are you okay?" he asked as he tried to tilt his head to get a better look at her face. There was a small scratch but… She shied away and muttered something with a thick Xingese accent. "May?"

"I'm fine," she said in a wispy voice. Al blinked and tried to dismiss her odd behavior. He'd ask later.

"You must be more careful Princess," Lan Fan softly chided. She hitched up her luggage and grinned. "Your house shouldn't be too hard to find. Now stay out of trouble, young chényú luòyàn." And with that, she disappeared like a streak of lightning.

_Did she just call us diving fish!? _Al wondered to himself, baffled about how familiar the term was. Where had he heard that term before…? He thought back to how Lan Fan's eyes had bored into a suddenly flustered May. Overall, he felt completely lost.

* * *

"Found anything yet?" Alphonse asked as he handed May another book on Alchemic symbols.

She gracefully accepted the book and added it to the pile that was beginning to consume the library desk. She frowned and shook her head. "No. Nothing so far."

Al looked up from his own share of his notes and watched as she nibbled on the end of her pencil. She was trying to recreate and separate the tattoo marks onto a separate sheet of paper. Xiao Mei had taken to nibbling on a blank piece of paper while watching May jot down notes on another sheet. She hummed as she drew boxes around anything she considered relevant. "The only thing that catches my attention in particular is the marks over the stomach area. See them?"—she tapped her finger on the sketch—"If you ask me, it looks roughly like the alchemic symbol for the moon or silver. Do you mind finding some books that primarily contain references to either of those for me?"

"Sure." He scanned through the books until one dropped on his head. He groaned and held his head after the impact, but once he picked it up he saw that it was a reference book to lunar symbols. _Coincidence? _He looked up to see Xiao Mei at the top of the shelf with a smug look on her cuddly face. _I think not._ Al looked over to the table—the half-eaten paper having been abandoned by the little creature—and back over to the cat-sized panda with a questioning finger. "How'd you…"—he shook his head—"Never mind. Thanks."

"Found one?"

"More like Xiao Mei beat me to it." Al opened up the pages and looked over May's shoulder to cross examine the symbols. "Found it." He laid the book down next to her sketch and pointed to a matching symbol. "It's a match."

May clapped her hands together and laughed. "Looks like it! Now if we can find out how it fit into a circle…"

Al paced across the floor as he tried to come up with some theories. "I know that the moon is the symbol for the spirit…" He took to biting down on his thumbnail. "But there has to be something else…"

"We'll probably have to decipher the rest of the marks before we can make heads or tails out of any of this."

"Aw man."

May only shrugged and ushered Al back into a chair. Time seemed to fly as they tried to decipher the tattoos, headdesk the table every twelve frustrations later, bounce theories off one another, cross reference between books, and watch Xiao Mei make like Atlas and struggle to keep the mountain of books in place. They couldn't help but laugh once the mountain crumbled and half-buried the clumsy little panda.

"It'll be okay," May suddenly said a few minutes later. She, Al and Xiao Mei were all sprawled on their backs on the floor after the books had stolen up all the seats. The sunset cast a gold hue in the room and made for an almost relaxing environment.

"Huh?" Al asked as he tilted his head to get a better look at her.

He watched her at an upside-down angle as she brushed her long braids away from her face. "I know you probably don't want to hear that, but I'm serious." She blew a puff of air that whooshed through her bangs. "Of all the words I can think of, if I had to choose _only_ one, 'stubborn' is probably the best way to describe Edward—right next to 'douche nozzle'."

She smiled warmly as Al laughed out loud. "'Douche nozzle' is two words, May."

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah I know. Anyway, I know that he's a tough guy. We'll be able to get him back for sure."

Al's laughter died away and he met her eyes with sorrow. "But what if he—"

"I have forty-two siblings, Alphonse," she cut him off. "And I can't really say I have good relationships with any of them, if you don't count Ling. So I don't know what it's like for you and I can't just tell you that I understand." She reached out and held his hand. Al blushed as he thought of how warm and reassuring it felt. "C'mon," she said with an impish smirk. "If Ling can get turned into a homunculus and live to tell the tale, then Edward will be just fine. He won't stay down for very long."

Al remained quiet for a long stretch of time. If he was honest with himself, he'd admit that his doubts were somewhat lifted…but still… "What if…" he hesitated to bring the root of his worries out in the open. "What if he doesn't want to come back?" May raised a questioning eyebrow at him. He elaborated, "Brother never wanted to kill. He always valued human life over all things. But in Riviere, he—So many people died. What if he just can't live with himself over what he's done?"

May drew her brows together as she contemplated how to answer. Before she could say anything, though, the door to the small room swung open. "Major Elric?" a soldier asked as he peeked into the room.

Al absent mindedly wondered how he was found. He hadn't told anyone back at HQ… "Yes?" he asked as he pulled himself off of the ground.

The soldier—ranked Sergeant—gave a quick salute. "I have a message from General Mustang. 'He's awake.'"

Al froze as the words sunk in. A cold feeling of trepidation washed over him and he tried not to visibly freak out. He had been waiting. A pile of questions had been building up a mountain in his mind, but now… It was all blown away now that the time came for him to ask.

"Alphonse?" May asked. His train of thought was stopped as soon as he heard the worry in her voice. "Who's awake?"

Al met eyes with her. Her gaze never wavered as her dark eyes bore into him. "Selim Bradley…" Al answered slowly. "The first Pride…"

* * *

_*Applauds myself* Three cheers for cliffhangers. If there're any mistakes, I am so sorry. I'm not feeling too hot after today's writing endeavor so you can't expect much out of me._

_Oh and, anything spoken in Xingese was written in italics. In case you didn't catch that._

_Warning!: Lately, I keep coming up with all these ideas for FMA oneshots! WTH!? So if some random oneshots begin to pop up on my profile then you may safely assume the worst. I'm being held hostage by my own creativity. Do me a favor and call the creativity police!_

_**—****Tenchiko**_


	11. Chapter 11

Two months since my last update. Yikes! Sorry sorry!

Blame life, school, tests, studying, indecisiveness, ClosetFMAFan's fics—mostly _Good For the Soul_ and _A Source of Hope _(which both took over my mind)—and life.

To be honest, I'd finished writing this on Tuesday but couldn't find the time to proofread it until now. Sorry, my bruthahs and sistahs. If it's any compensation I've edited the first two chapters of this series so any new readers don't have to read that load of dash-filled crap.

R &amp; R!

* * *

Alphonse toyed with a piece of loose thread attached to his clothes as he glared back at Selim. The two hadn't exchanged a word in the past half-hour and it was almost as though they were waiting for the other to speak first. Unfortunately prideful stubbornness [no pun intended] was one of the reasons behind the last half hour of silence.

Colonel Bernhard shifted around in her seat out of boredom, but Al tried to ignore it. She had insisted on coming in order to keep both sides safe. For some reason, she wasn't too keen on trusting the two to behave.

She whispered something to May, who sat next to her. May nodded and stood up. Al raised a questioning eyebrow at her, but she merely smiled and said, "I'll be right back." She walked out the door and closed it quietly behind herself. Silence lingered still as the dull thump of the door faded away.

"So." Al jerked his attention back to Selim as soon as the homunculus finally broke the silence. "Fullmetal's been turned into a homunculus…"

Al narrowed his eyes at Selim as distrust crept into his emotions. "Who told you?"

Selim crossed his arms and scoffed. "No one had to. I can see him."

It took a moment for those words to compute. And once they did, Al couldn't hide the shock or confusion that overcame him. "You what?"

"I. Can. See. Him." Selim only sighed, as though he was speaking to a little child, and closed his eyes. "He's in a dark place; the tunnels if I'm not mistaken."

"How's that possible?" Colonel Bernhard asked, easily hiding any surprise she may have behind an expertly made mask.

"He has my stone of course."

Al blinked. "Your stone?" he asked numbly.

"The Philosopher's Stone is a homunculus's core," Selim explained. "As long as my stone exists, no matter who or what vessel it's in, I will remain alive with it."

Alphonse's blood ran cold at the thought."…You mean, you're also _inside_ my brother?" he asked as he clenched and unclenched his fists. *Something similar had been done to himself during the Promised Day…He couldn't move on his own free will; he was barely aware of what was going on; voices around him had been muffled and unreachable; and it felt like cold, slick fingers were jerking him around like a puppet on strings. The sensation had been outright disgusting.

Selim seemed to notice Al's displeasure, but didn't comment on it. "Not exactly." Suddenly a shadow shot up from under Selim. Al jumped back and assumed a defensive stance, while Colonel Bernhard jumped out of her seat in order to defend herself should the need arise. However, Selim only held his hand up in a gesture for them to calm down, unfazed by their reaction.

Al's eyes flicked from Selim to the pointed pillar until he noticed that something was off… Like sand drizzling down from inside an hourglass, the tip of the shadowy spear suddenly seemed to break apart and drizzle away. As the black grains touched the tiled floor, they seemed to evaporate away in a puff of unscented smoke.

"Do you understand now?" Selim asked as he watched Al slowly approach the crumbling shadow. "I've been split in half. My mind and body remain here, while a large potion of my soul and powers have been taken and placed into your brother."

Al ran his fingers along the spearlike shadow, surprised and fascinated with the feeling of its smooth, glass-like surface before it crumbled away at his touch. "How's this possible?" Al asked as he met eyes with the homunculus.

Selim crossed his arms and stayed silent for a moment. "Well…it'll probably make sense if I explain from the beginning the whats, hows, and whys behind the return of Father…"

* * *

"Could I ask something first?"

"Go on ahead."

"Your memory…" Al began slowly. "From what I'd heard, after the Promised Day you'd had no recollection of anything that had happened. What happened to change that?"

Selim leaned back as he contemplated this question. "Technically, I did and didn't remember."

"What?" Al asked, confused.

Selim groaned in aggravation. "How do I explain it? It's like…" He snapped his fingers a couple of times as he tried to come up with an analogy. "Kinda like knowing how to breathe. I had the details, I knew what it was, but I didn't give it much thought. It was just"—he made a level hand gesture—"there."

Al blinked. It kinda made sense. Kinda…

"I wasn't too concerned about it until I accidentally used my shadows once. Long story short, I'd dropped a book off the side of the stairs, it was about to hit mother, I caught it." He then glared at Alphonse. "Speaking of which; what the hell possessed you to leave me with Mrs. Bradley?"

Al raised his hand up defensively, "It was Brother's idea not mine!"

"Idiot," he grumbled in reply. "And you didn't even think to tell her what a homunculus exactly was?"

Not knowing how to answer, Al merely shrugged.

"Whatever. I'm getting off topic anyway," Selim grumbled. "Anyway, I don't want to go into the details, but it freaked us out, we sat down and put the pieces together, end of story."** Selim leaned back in his sitting position. "Anything else?"

Al shook his head. "No, but thanks."

"Good. Now about Father…the first thing I should probably mention is the failsafe."

Al blinked. "A failsafe?"

Selim nodded. "I'm the only one aside from Father himself who knew of it's existence."

_A Month Earlier…_

_The darkness gave him chills as his ability to use shadows would become utterly useless. He hadn't been there in a while so it all had an unfamiliar feel to him—making this entire endeavor seem more unnerving. But the failsafe was still operable, and that was unacceptable. No one else knew of it; except for himself of course._

"Basically, they were fairly complex transmutation circles—eight in all. Each had a Philosopher's Stone and the needed materials to revive them all."

"Woah woah woah!" Al exclaimed. "You're saying they were human transmutation circles?" The memory of his and Edward's failed human transmutation flashed through his mind's eye. "But that's impossible!"

Selim only smirked, although the expression didn't seem to meet his eyes. "I believe there's a saying Greed had taught you. 'There's no such thing as no such thing.' That especially applies to us homunculus." He absently rubbed the side of his neck as he seemed to mull over how to explain. "We are and aren't human. We defy the law of creating life, artificial or not. So long as we still have some of our stones intact, we _can_ be brought back…more or less."

_As he neared the room in the farthest part of the underground labyrinth, it became clear that no one else had made it this far yet. It was a mere quick turn every few road forks and he finally saw them. As they had been the last he'd seen them, the intricately etched circles were laid out in an orderly fashion on the floor._

_He immediately summoned his shadows and had them crash into one of the circles. He made sure it was reduced to nothing more than rubble. Sloth was the first to go._

_He turned to the next one and tried not to let his eyes linger on it for long. It wouldn't do to hesitate now. 'He wouldn't want to be brought back,' Selim tried to remind himself, 'especially not in an incomplete form.' It took an extra layer of mental strength as he destroyed Wrath's circle. It became nothing more than dust in seconds._

"I was able to destroy two of them. However…"

_He couldn't dwell on the loss of Wrath. He moved his line of sight to the next one. Or at least, the spot where the last one should've been. It really shouldn't have come as a shock that that one's circle had already been destroyed, after what that reckless idiot had done. The circle was cracked and it lacked the materials like the rest of the other circles. In a way, this could be considered another punishment from Father for Greed's betrayal. No surprise here. _

_"__Selfish idiot," Selim mumbled under his breath. "To be honest, I wouldn't have touched your circle but now…" He would never admit it out loud, but even though he never held any particular emotional attachment to his younger sibling, that didn't mean he lacked any care about them in his own way. _

"Greed's had already been destroyed."

Al bowed his head at the thought. Greed had been an ally, and someone Ed had considered truly trustworthy. Alphonse himself had observed how different Greed was from the others. How the avaricious homunculus had been a little more…human than the rest of the homunculi. Al forced himself out of an incoming funk as he changed the subject. "So if these were transmutation circles," he began as he rested his chin on his hand, "someone had to have been there to activate the circle." Selim shrugged and nodded. "So who was it?"

_"__What happened here?" a voice from behind suddenly said._ _It was a woman of at least twenty years. Sharp, intelligent eyes and a clean cut appearance sharply contrasted from the almost ancient, worn-down feel of their surroundings. _

_She observed the broken circles and saw how Selim reflexively surrounded her with shadows. _

"Thing is, I don't know anything about her. Furthermore, she didn't seem to know me either." He humphed in irritation. "It didn't take long for a battle to break out and the end result was the defacing of much of the surrounding area."

"Does that include some of the passage ways?" Colonel Bernhard suddenly asked.

It seemed that Selim finally noticed that she was still in the room as well. He blinked for a moment. "You're still here? You've been like a mouse that I almost forgot about you."

Bernhard twitched a slightly condescending smile. "It's a gift."

After an awkward stretch of silence… "To answer your question, yes, I did block off some passageways in an attempt to corner her. Is that important?"

Bernhard leaned back into her seat as she made a so-and-so motion of her hand. "Nah, it was just inconvenient when I kept hitting dead ends down there on my last trip. Noting important at the moment though."

Selim blinked as he recalled an incident while under Central Command. "A while back, you wouldn't happen to have been running around down there with a faulty flashlight, had you?"

"It was a camera."

"I see…"

_This woman was strong. She barely put much effort in dodging any of his attacks, and her Alchemy was insane. Activated by a transmutation circle pendent around her neck, it sent a powerful wind turbulent that held enough force to break any light bulbs and snuff out any light source that was powered by a fire. However, she wasn't inflicting any real damage aside from draining him of some of his energy…_

_He was beginning to run out of space to fight. Every now and then, he'd run into an area where a blinking light went off at an inconsistent rate, but he didn't give it much thought before taking advantage of the light to send a flash of an attack back at his opponent._

"I'm not exactly sure how much time was spent trying to take her down. However, by the time I realized that she'd practically forced us into a complete circle down there, it was too late."

_She'd managed to put enough distance between them to activate the first circle. The circle glowed blue, but soon turned to red as the stones at its center reacted to the transmutation. As soon as a form began to take shape in the circle, she was able to release her hold and activate the others, repeating this process until they were all activated._

_"__Damn!" Selim knew it was too dangerous to do anything now…but that didn't stop him from taking advantage of the sparking red light show to pin the woman with his shadows._

_Her back slammed against the wall, but she merely sneered. "It's too late now. Killing me won't stop the transmutation."_

_He knew she was right—dammit he knew she was right. He felt as though he'd failed, and was on the verge of killing the woman himself. He had to remind himself, though, that killing was out of the question. He'd promised… The only way to stop this now, he reminded himself, was to strike them down before they could orient themselves._

_However, as the thought crossed his mind, as though to prove him wrong, two black spears cut through the blood red sparks and pierced into the heart and lung of the woman. Her eyes widened, and a strangled gasp for air escaped her before she coughed up blood. He watched in shock and instinctively retracted his shadows. She laid sprawled on the floor, but that fact didn't concern him at the moment. He recognized that blade…he knew whose it was… 'Oh crap.'_

"I didn't make it."

Alphonse couldn't help but frown. His hands clenched in frustration and his nails dug into his flesh. If only Selim had made it in time. If he had, then Edward wouldn't have…

"So then what happened?" Colonel Bernhard asked patiently.

"There was a confrontation." Seemingly amused, Selim smiled wryly. "They were all confused as hell—especially as to why I turned against them." He couldn't help but chuckle. "I suppose I would've been the same, had I been in their place."

"And after that, they determined to take your stone and start from scratch with you," Al guessed. "Am I right?"

Selim nodded. "Naturally, I wasn't going to let that happen. And unlike Greed, I was far more capable of putting up a good fight."

"How long had you…?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"If I were to guess," Colonel Bernhard said aloud, "Three days before you wore out." Al raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "It was a day prior to the wedding when I was down there—my film was easy to process," she quickly added as she saw Al open his mouth to point that out. "Then it took another two days—the wedding day, and the day after—for you and Edward to come to Central." Al nodded in understanding.

Silence overcame the room as the events of Selim's explanation aligned with that night. Al's heart clenched at the memory of his brother's unconscious form. The way he and Ed had met eyes while the blade sliced into Al's flesh. The shock. The horror. Was that really the last memory Al would ever have of his brother?

"When and how does Father plan to set off the Nationwide Transmutation circle?" Al asked.

Selim frowned. "The only one who knows is Father himself. I was never told."

Colonel Bernhard couldn't seem to suppress a groan. "Great. Back to the drawing board."

Alphonse couldn't help but sigh. _Of all the lousy—_

"You don't plan to still face him, do you?" Selim asked, slightly shocked.

Al was taken aback at the incredulous question. "O-of course!" he snapped. "He has my brother, and he still plans to destroy my home. Do you think I'll just sit back and let that happen?"

"Did you forget the number that was done to you last time?" Selim snapped back. "You'd barely made it out alive, and Edward can be used against you as a hostage this time around."

"Then I'll just get him out of there before that can happen!" Al said with a surprising measure of confidence. From behind him, Bernhard had a faint smile playing on her lips as she watched her comrade regain his fire.

Selim, however, wasn't quite as convinced. "…It won't be that easy."

"How so?"

"They're supplied with Red Stones. Not only are they easier to obtain, but they also have around the same affect on them as an ordinary stone—with a few tweaks when mixed in with the real deal."

"Such as?"

"Greater resilience, heightened strength, faster, perhaps some upgrades on their powers for some"—he glared down at Al, who refused to back down—"and they're far more determined to stay that way."

Al met him glare for glare before saying slowly, "I'm still going after them."

A stretch of silence saturated with conflicting resolutions dominated the room. Al wouldn't consider himself to be mule stubborn, but he wasn't going to let Selim's arguments cause him to hesitate. Edward needed him, whether he consciously realized it or not. And there was no way Al would let his brother…the brother who would sell his very own soul to the devil to ensure Al's safety… Alphonse wasn't going to let Edward down! No way in hell.

It was then that Selim, after seeing the determination shining in Al's eyes, let down the mask of doubt and relinquished a genuine smile. "I was hoping that was going to be your answer," he said with a smile. "Knowing you, I have faith you'll live up to your words." And suddenly his smile became a little sadder. "I'd failed to stop this from happening—believing that I could handle this myself. As a result, you and your brother are now in this mess because of me, and for that I'm sorry."

Al gave a small smile of his own at the sight of the homunculus's showing of humility. "It's okay."

"I don't know if this can be of much help but…" Selim held out his hand and opened it slightly to reveal a shining red substance no larger than a piece of coal. Al gasped at the sight.

"That's—"

"Eighty percent of my stone." Selim gave Alphonse a stern look. "What remans in my body is going to deplete soon enough. I've lost the ability to regenerate, and I can't survive like this for long. So the least you can do is shut up and accept this."

"But I can't—"

"It might be the key to saving your brother."

Al stopped mid sentence as his mind tried to process that comment. "Wh…what?"

Selim only gave him an 'are you stupid?' look before elaborating. "Edward is currently trapped in a state wherein his consciousness is being repressed by the stone. My stone. So what do you think would happen if you managed to draw the stone toward it's missing half and away from your brother?"

Al gasped at the realization.

"Of course, you'll probably still need a circle to drag the whole thing out."

"But it could work, right?" Al asked a little to eagerly. He sounded too hopeful even to himself.

Selim shrugged. "It's only a theory. There are plenty of variables. Such as if this half was to—oh I don't know—become drawn towards Edward's body instead of vice versa. Or perhaps even enter a separate vessel entirely. The stone itself might go into some sort of survival instinct and try to manifest into another body."

Al winced at the thought. Considering the fact that he himself might be the closest possible "vessel" that the stone could try to access was highly troubling to think of. But still…

"Still I'll take that risk."

Selim smiled. "I thought you'd say that." Al, thankfully, had a cloth on hand in his back pocket and took the stone with that. Not allowing his eyes to linger on the stone he and his brother had once coveted, he wrapped it up carefully. Better not let it touch skin. "I'm trusting you, you know that?" Selim asked.

Alphonse nodded, feeling more determined than ever before.

"Good." It was then that Alphonse noticed what was happening, his heart jumping in shock. Slowly, like grains of sand, Selim's body was beginning to give out. Suddenly alarmed, Alphonse was about to intervene, but Selim stopped him with a wave of the hand. "I told you what was left was going to deplete soon."

"But—"

"Alphonse…" Now it was Colonel Bernhard, with a gentle hand on Al's shoulder, who interrupted. Gold laced eyes met with soft green ones. The elder telling the younger to let it go.

"I'd told you," Selim said as he slowly began to fade away. "As long as the stone exists, I won't die the way you humans do. So don't act like that."

"Is there anything you want me to tell Mrs. Bradley?" Colonel Bernhard asked with a calm demeanor—her eyes giving nothing away to either Alphonse or Selim.

Selim smiled slightly at the very mention of his "mother." "Tell her 'thank you' for me," he said before even the dust disappeared into the air.

…

…

…

The day was filled with too many breaks of silence. Drained of the mental strength to stand, Al would've collapsed on the floor had it not been for Bernhard strong hand. "You okay, blondie?" she asked.

Al could do little more than swallow back his sorrow and nod. Carefully, he unwrapped the cloth to get a glimpse of the stone. Using his sense of chi, he felt the flow of the souls inside. Although filled with chaos and confusion, the flow was still there nonetheless. A steady flow that he was all too familiar with feeling as of late.

All the individual parts of this world were connected—all of it flowing in a single direction. When something dies, what it leaves behind can be used to benefit those who are also left behind in this life. And after the beneficiaries die, then they too support those who remain, and so on. No existence was useless and nothing was a lost cause to the world. It all contributed to and benefitted from the world's flow. And this flow was something that an Alchemist was capable of understanding and using all the time. For Alkahestrists even more so. Thus, no one understood the significance of the world's flow more than Alphonse.

"The dead can't be brought back," Al said, more to himself than to the one in the room with him. He turned his head to look into Colonel Bernhard's eyes—a surge of inner strength flowing into him. "But Edward can. And I have to do whatever it takes to get him back."

A few days earlier, Al had been like a firefly whose light—whose fire—had been snuffed out, as impossible as that seemed. Now however, it was as though the light flickered and then roared back, stronger than before. Observing this first hand, Colonel Bernhard did little more than nod in approval.

* * *

_*I wonder how many people will recognize what I'm talking about. Because that had given me an outright "OMIGAWDWUTTHEFRICKNHELL!?" and a "WHATINTHENAMEOFMIKEMCFARLANDISGOINGONHERE!?" moment while watching it happen in the anime. I actually had a writhing chill, it freaked me out so much!_

_**Sorry if you consider this useless dialogue. My friend wouldn't shut up about the questions asked here in relation to my fic so I had no choice but to write it in. So throw your Italian tomatoes at my friend, why don't ya?_

_Forgive me if you can't make heads or tails about the italic-y part. I couldn't decide between a dialogue explanation or a flashback so I created a combination of both. The dialogue is kinda where I didn't know how to describe the crap (cuz I'm undependable with homunculus vs human action scenes, and writing antagonists that aren't my property thank you very much) To be honest I like it though, so yeah._

_Oh and announcement: Starting in October this fic and my other pet project will both be on hiatus in order to give me more free time to make some holiday FMA One-shots. one of them will be AlMei and the other will be EdWin (which, I'll have you know, I am very excited about writing.)._

_ AAAAAND I couldn't really get rid of all the other Fic ideas I've come up with. SOOOO I wrote out all the plots for them! All twelve of them! (actually I've come up with another so I need to write that one down too XD) The titles for them are all on my profile so if you're interested in any of them, just PM me, tell me which one you're curious about and, and I'll give you their plot._

**—_Tenchiko_**


	12. Chapter 12

_HAPPY FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST DAY! I was actually gonna write a one-shot in honor of this special day...but I failed. It read like crap and I failed. XD SO AN UPDATE INSTEAD! :D And we get to see one of my favorite FMA characters in this chapter so bonus for me!_

* * *

Alphonse Elric is many things. Patient, a cat lover, normal compared to the rest of the men in his family tree… He was calming and gentle towards those weaker than himself but fearless towards threatening enemies.

However, all it takes is the name of Izumi Curtis to make him tremble in fear.

"Please stop pacing, Major," Colonel Bernhard said dryly. Al, feeling like a ball of static nerves on caffeine, shot her a glare before returning to his pacing across the female colonel's office. "And the _muttering_ is getting annoying too," Bernhard stated a little louder.

"I'm sorry!" Al shouted, clearly annoyed. "But you'd be scared too if you were about to die!"

Bernhard rolled her eyes. _Kids these days…_ "You're not going to die."

"You don't know that!" Al shouted.

"Don't be ridiculous. Mustang told me that she was a perfectly pleasant woman when he'd met her."

"Because she was in public!"

Colonel Bernhard made a low growling sound from the back of her throat. "Elric." She tried to remain fairly calm even though her patience was wearing thin. "She won't be here for another two hours. _You_ don't have to go to the train station to meet with her for another two hours. Calm. Down. No one's even forcing you to do it in the first place, and if you still would like to pace, please do it in Mustang's office."

Al wrung his wrists together as he tried to calm himself. He knew she was right—well, for the most part at least. He had another two hours before his former teacher's train arrived at the station. Another two hours before he was going to have to tell his former teacher what had happened to Ed. Two hours before his former teacher killed him for being irresponsible. _Two hours…_ Alphonse could probably ask May or Bernhard to go in his stead. However that would not only be prolonging the inevitable, but also making his death sentence ten times worse. Not a good idea.

He really needed to get his mind off of this. "Colonel, by any chance do you know where May is?"

Bernhard looked up from her desk. With a tilt of the head and a contemplative hum, she thought about it. "I think she's at the hospital visiting the Renault chil—"

"I think I'll go check on her!" Al stated all too eagerly as he flew out of the door like a shot.

"Wait! Major!" The door slammed shut before Colonel Bernhard had a chance to get out another word. She heaved a sigh and slumped back into her suddenly not-so-comfortable chair. "If the meeting winds up running late due to lack of preparedness, I'm blaming him." After all _she _didn't know where the files containing his theory were.

* * *

"That's the saddest story I've ever heard!" Asher exclaimed. Al watched from the door, neither Asher nor May seeming to have noticed his presence. Well, maybe not on Asher's part—May probably knew, but just wasn't acknowledging him. Asher sat in a wheel chair, looking greatly immersed in his conversation with May, who sat on a chair across from him. Xiao Mei had made herself quite comfortable on Asher's lap while he ran his fingers through her fur. The little panda seemed perfectly content to the point of dozing off right where she laid.

"What about those stories _you've_ been telling me?" May asked with a teasing smile.

Asher seemed to do a double take as he contemplated it. "Yeah I guess they're a little sad too," he admitted, "But I've heard them so many times they don't bother me anymore. A-and they didn't have dead bunnies in them either!"

"Yes, but the Jade Rabbit didn't actually die in the fire."

"_But_ it did get banished on the moon, and it wasn't allowed to do anything but make those immortality pills. It was probably really lonely—and bored to tears too."

"The moon goddess Chang'e was there with it, you know."

"Well then she was probably lonely and bored too."

"So I guess they were lonely and bored together," Al chimed in. May turned and gave him an easy going wave while Asher ducked his head, and muttered something shyly with a blush. Al smiled while Xiao Mei scurried over to him and jumped onto his shoulder. She was starting to get too big. "How's it going in here?" he asked as he scratched under the little panda's chin.

May smiled back. "Okay I guess. I have yet to convince Asher here that his stories are worse though."

Asher made a face at the mention of his stories but didn't comment.

Al then observed Asher carefully. The boy was eating well—much better than he had the first few days at least—and he seemed to be in higher spirits than when Al last came by to visit. That last visit being forty eight hours ago.

"How are you holding up?"

A smile tugged at the edge of Asher's lips although it didn't last long. "I'm okay." He looked down at his bandage covered legs quietly. Even though there was no blood staining the white sheets like the first time, Al couldn't help but imagine the boy's bandages to be crimson stained like they'd been back then… "Caleb used to always lecture me about how I'd swing my legs whenever I was sitting like this," Asher suddenly said. "I did it everywhere; at school, in the car, _especially_ at the dinner table—that was always his last straw." Asher giggled, although there was no joy in it. "Wouldn't he be proud now."

Al's eyes couldn't help but linger on the bandages. _Edward had done that._ a small voice in his head whispered. _He did that and many other horrid things to this boy…_

"Hey, Mr. Elric?" Al was pulled from his thoughts upon hearing the boy's small voice.

"You can just call me Al."

Asher nodded. "Okay. Ummm… I just wanted to say thanks for always coming by. You and Miss Chang both. I-I really appreciate it."

"Well you're very welcome," May said as soon as she came to the conclusion that Al wasn't going to answer.

Alphonse forced himself to swallow the guilt that was welling up in his throat. "Asher?"

"Yes?"

Al pulled up a chair and sat next to the younger boy. He looked the boy in the eye, searching the child's seafoam green orbs for any apprehension. After finding none, he said slowly, "You know that it was my brother who…um…who did that to your home town."

Asher shrugged and slowly nodded.

"Asher, I can't possibly tell you enough how sorry I am," Al blurted. "I mean—your only parent dies, your friends die, you can't…I mean…you can't…"

Asher leaned forward and studied Alphonse carefully. "I can't walk?"

Al gulped and nodded. "Yeah. The point is, you've lost everything. A-and it's my fault too. And I just…I just—"

"It's okay."

"—I'm just so sorry." It took a moment for Al to realize what Asher had just said. "Wait…huh?"

"It's okay," Asher repeated. "I mean—I'm not happy that I can't walk anymore. My legs feel like useless lead all the time. And I miss Caleb and my friends and everyone I knew. But…I don't feel like I have the right to be angry or bitter." Asher took in a deep, calming breath. "Your brother was about to kill us both. He _was_. I knew it, Caleb knew it…At that point, we were just waiting to find out if dying hurt. But something changed. _He_ changed. I don't know how, but I could just tell."—he swallowed thickly as his next words became harder to say—"T-then…he asked Caleb t-to choose whose life d…did he value the most." Tears began rolling down his face as his words began to stutter. "He chose mine." He swiped at his tears as sniffles soon followed.

Al and May traded glances at this revelation. _Ed had—_

"I _can't_ be angry or bitter," Asher said again. "Because _I've_ gotten a second chance. My friends…my big brother…They all didn't get this chance, but your brother _let_ me live. I-I don't know why, or what made him change like that. But when you bring him back…" Asher met eyes with Alphonse, a sense of resolve in his large eyes that didn't belong on a child so young. They reminded Al too much of his brother when Ed was around Asher's age. "I want to meet Edward Elric. I want to ask him things. Call me selfish, but I deserve to know why." The resolve funneled out as he became more meek. "So if it's okay with you I uh…"

It took a bit of processing, but Alphonse had a good idea what Asher was asking. He nodded and forced a small smile. "Okay."

* * *

At the station, Al couldn't help but glance behind himself every now and then. May stood by his side doing what she could to keep him from jumping at the sound of the train whistle or at the sight of dark hair showing at the corner of his eye (because HELLO! Embarrassing!). Unfortunately, it just wasn't working.

Then he saw her. Izumi Curtis's presence stood out from the rest, even without the help of Al's sense of chi. Sharp eyes pierced into Al's very soul as she zeroed in on him. Al tried not to twitch when her aura became more dark and foreboding. Sig, Izumi's husband, stood next to her and gave a little nod of greeting towards Al.

"Uh…H-hi, Teach—" He didn't even receive a chance to finish his greeting before the older woman came at him like a flash of lightning and threw him backwards. May was smart enough to get far enough away to stay out of the crossfire as Al tried to stand and enter a defensive stance. All it took was three more blows before the young Alchemist was down and out for the count. "Ugh…Teacher," Al protested weakly as he got his second wind. He didn't even bother to stand up this time.

"You've been lagging off on your training," Izumi stated curtly. "If you're this bad, I'm almost afraid to see how sloppy your brother has gotten."

May met eyes with Al as the mention of Ed came up. How was he going to tell her!?

Izumi then seemed to notice May. Her eyes lit up in recognition. "I remember you! Goodness have you grown."

May smiled and bowed politely. "Please to formally meet you. My name is May Chang."

The two shook hands and May repeated the process with Sig. All the while, Al remained on the floor trying to decide whether or not it was safe enough to stand yet…

x

The four stood quietly in the middle of the street as Al finished explaining it all to his ex-teacher. "So…Edward has…" She didn't even bother finishing. The woman had her back leaned against the wall of a building with a hand over her eyes. Considering the fact that she hadn't broken anything, Alphonse would say that Izumi was taking it fairly well—

_SMASH!_

Scratch that. Next thing Al knew, there was a crater in the wall.

Izumi was seething, her breathing heavy and deep. The crater in the wall proved her still-resilient strength, but her body language told a different story. Sig went to try and comfort her, softly speaking to her things that neither Al nor May could hear.

"T-teacher, I—"

"He's still there, isn't he?" she asked hoarsely. Her fist was still planted on the wall, and her mess of dark hair covered her face. Alphonse couldn't read her expression. "Well?" she snapped.

Al flinched, but quickly nodded. "May and I have recently found reason to believe so, yes."

Izumi's hand relaxed slightly, although it still remained on the wall as though to keep her standing. "What are the chances of saving him?"

Al and May traded glances. "Fifty fifty, possibly."

"And that's being optimistic," May added quietly.

Izumi walked up to Al, meeting her former protege in the eye. Al was slightly taller than his ex-teacher by a few inches, but that changed nothing between the two.

"You better be taking on those odds," Izumi stated without a hint of wavering in her voice.

Alphonse couldn't stop the confident grin on his face. "You bet I am."

* * *

Once in Central Headquarters, the four met with Colonel Bernhard and General Mustang in the Colonel's office. As Bernhard and Izumi traded introductions, Alphonse and May pulled out various graphs and charts that they had been working on these past few days. As soon as it was all set, it was time to lay out the game plan.

"First off, I'd like to thank you, Teacher, for coming over to help."

Izumi nodded solemnly while the Colonel was studying a map on the table. "This seems to be a pretty simple theory you have going on here, Major," Bernhard commented. She then pointed out the checkmarks around certain cities. "We're making a Purification circle?"

"That's just the first step," May explained. "With the circle, we plan on deactivating the rest of the blood crests in one shot. So far, we've only been able to do it one area at a time in Riviere, but if we can place the markers at the center of each city marked here"— she pointed at the five check points—"then Alphonse and I will make a circle outside the country's borderline and destroy the blood crests."

"And that's why there's only five of us—four Alchemists and an Alkahestrist," Izumi concluded. "One for each marker."

"Right," Al said. "But just deactivating the blood crests won't be enough. There's also Father himself and the other homunculi to worry about."

"And the Red Water," Roy added, remembering the deadly poison in the tunnels that was keeping them from going down there in the first place. If that stuff was to leak out…

"That too. May and I will be handling the Red Water at its source—"

"Are you insane!?" Izumi asked angrily.

Colonel Bernhard exclaimed, "You kids can't go down there!"

"Wait, just hear me out!" Al said defensively, dismissing the fact that he was just called a kid. "May and I are probably the only two here who can ingest the poison and still have a chance of survival."

"Through the usage of Alkahestry," May added.

"It only makes sense that we handle it ourselves."

Bernhard sighed and relinquished her hand from it's threatening stance—she was _this_ close to hitting the younger Alchemist. "And the homunculi?"

Alphonse shrugged. "It'll be like the first time. We'll have to drain them all dry of their Stones."—The he took out the small box that he now used to hold his half of Pride's Stone—"But first I need to get Ed out of there." He tightened his grip on the box. After putting it away, he then pulled out five maps of the five cities. Briggs, Liore, Ishval, Fotset, and Pendleton. Each map had the exact coordinates of where the markers needed to be placed. "So, who's going where?"

May plucked the Briggs coordinates out of Al's hand. "By my calculations, the Red Water has spread far past Riviere and is heading to Briggs. If I can stop it there, you won't have to worry about it at all."

Before Alphonse could answer, Colonel Bernhard picked up one of the other maps. "I guess I'll go with Ishval then."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Al asked hesitantly. He spared a glance at Roy, but the General merely studied another separate map, sparing no acknowledgement of the topic at hand. "I mean, Ishval was—"

"My train was blown to kingdom come before I had the chance to do any damage," Bernhard stated as she too looked at Roy. "Otherwise, I'd probably have been somewhere next to Mustang in that hell hole." She put the map into her desk drawer. "Ishval is mine. Got it?"

From there, Roy was given charge of Fotset, a town west of South City, and Izumi selected Pendleton, a checkmark southwest of Riviere. As for Alphonse, he chose Lior.

_This'll be a pretty coincidental place to meet with my brother…_ he couldn't help but think, slightly amused.

Then, General Mustang cleared his throat. "The Colonel and myself are among the few in the military who are privy to the homunculi's resurfacing, so it's expected for everyone to be as discreet as possible. The goal is to keep the peace without gathering unwanted attention."

"Speaking of," Izumi stated in a seemingly casual voice—although Al could see though it. "Two high ranking officers leaving all of a sudden would cause suspicion. What is your and Miss Bernhard's alibis?"

Bernhard shrugged. "I have a nephew who lives near Ishval, a ways north of the region. He's going to be a father again in a few months, and he's never minded a visit."

"If memory serves, my subordinate Master Sergeant Fuery was once stationed in Fotset," Roy mentioned with a smirk. "He said it's recently become a fine place to visit on vacation. I'll be going there with Hawkeye to..catch up on things."

After an awkward stretch of silence Alphonse shrugged. "Well okay then." He folded his map up and tucked it away in his back pocket. "I think I've covered everything now so…"

Mustang nodded. "Then all trains leave in the morning. Dismissed."

* * *

At the train station, it was only Alphonse, LanFan, and May left. The others had taken their trains—and for Roy and Izumi, their traveling companions as well—and now only the tree of them remained. And a panda.

"Do you have all your necessities packed?" May asked Alphonse.

Al lifted his travel bag from under the bench and tapped its side. "Yep."

"A change of clothes?"

"Yes."

"Extra money?"

"Some in my pocket and some in my bag."

"Some underwear?"

"May!"

She blushed furiously as she realized how strange she sounded. "S-sorry! I guess I'm just nervous."

Al blinked in confusion. "Nervous? What for?"

The question did little more than make May's face turn redder. She mumbled something in a thick Xingese accent that Al couldn't make heads or tails of. For a while they just sat in silence. Once he noticed that he couldn't see LanFan nearby, Al curiously looked around for her. Xiao Mei chattered and made gestures to May about something, but as a panda, it made no sense. Then May broke the silence.

"So what do you plan on doing? About Asher I mean."

Al leaned back in his seat and watched some birds sitting on the roof's beams who were watching the people below them. "Asher's scheduled to be released from the hospital in a few days. Until I can find him a more permanent place to stay, I've already gotten him a place set up."

* * *

Asher sat next to the phone booth with apprehension. Alphonse told him that it was okay to call at any time. But what if she's busy? Heck, Asher didn't know who "she" was! The nurse, a friendly brunette, stood behind his wheelchair and waited patiently as Asher tried to make a decision. _It's now or never,_ Asher decided as he finally picked up the phone and dialed the number Alphonse gave him.

745-366…

The phone rang a few times, but soon enough someone answered. "_Just tell her your name, and that I sent you." Got it._ A female voice greeted him with a warm, "_Rockbell Prosthetic Limbs Outfitters._"

* * *

"He's going to be staying with Winry?" May asked incredulously.

Al shrugged. "Sure why not? I've been talking with her over the phone about Asher and she offered to let him stay with her."

"Is that a good idea?"

"…Okay I'll admit, I was a little unsure about it at first." He closed his eyes as he tried to recreate the image of Asher's determined face in his mind. "But…now I know it'll be just fine."

The train whistle screeched as the conductor let passengers know that the train to North City was ready to leave. May jumped off the bench and quickly gathered her things. Alphonse picked up her bag and handed it to her. "You better get going."

May nodded. She made her way to the train only to stop and turn back in a quick sort of shuffle.

"May?"

"Hang on a sec." She reached into her bag and began digging around. She muttered as she seemed to search for something and let out a cry of victory as she pulled out a small bag the size of a coin purse. She quickly shoved it in his hands as she blushed. "Here."

Al opened the little bag only to see a palmful of small seeds inside. "Ummm…thanks?"

"They're hotarugusa seeds!" May blurted out quickly.

Al blinked. _Hotarugusa…Oh! Firefly grass!_

"When you came to Xing, you had mentioned that you'd never seen Firefly grass before," May explained with a blush powdering her cheeks. "S-so these are hotarugusa seeds to plant—later, I mean!" She fiddled with her dress as Alphonse looked at the seeds. "I don't know if you remember, but a Xingese legend says that if you hold a hotarugusa flower to your chest and pray while it's in bloom, then the person you're thinking of will be able to feel your prayers, no matter how far away he is."

Al wasn't able to say anything, moved by how meaningful May was being in giving him such a kind gift. A small smile tugged at his lips as he held the bag of seeds close. "Thank you, May."

May gave a shaky smile, still feeling flustered. Before any more words could be traded, though, the train whistle went off. Both of them jumped.

"Last call to all passengers!"

"Oh look at the time!" May said quickly. She grabbed her bags and Xiao Mei followed closely behind as May began making her way towards the train. LanFan was already waiting nearby the train car. "Bye Alphonse~!"

Al smiled and waved as she hurried onto the train. The conductor accepted her ticket and ushered her through the train car. As the train began chugging away from the station, May leaned out the window, LanFan watching from behind her, and waved to Alphonse. Al watched as a look of realization slowly overcame her and she tried calling out to him.

The words were lost in the wind, but Al began running alongside the train as he strained to hear. "What did you say!?" Alphonse asked as loud as he could.

May's words just barely reached him this time. "I forgot to answer you! About Edward!" At the mention of their library conversation, Alphonse tried to get closer to the train window where May was leaning out of. However, the train was beginning to out run him. "If the weight gets to be too much, it'll be up to us to carry the load!" Al strained to hear as he began losing stamina. But May's words still rang strongly against the wind, a confident smile adorning her face. "We'll _all_ have to pitch in, and help him move forward!"

Finally the train out ran him, and Alphonse watched as his friend's form began shrinking as it neared the horizon. His breathing was heavy and ragged, but a smile was on his face. _We'll all have to pitch in…_ "Thanks…May."

A few minutes later, Alphonse was on his own train to Lior. He watched the scenery and enjoyed the way the horizon seemed to always embrace the sky. Houses passed his window as towns were left behind in the wake of the train tracks.

The ride to Lior wouldn't take long. Al smiled as he wondered what Rose had done with the "gift" he'd given her on his last visit to the sandy town. Eleven for her ten. Alphonse then reached for the bag of hotarugusa seeds that May had given him. _Hold it to your chest and pray while it's in bloom, then the person you're thinking of will be able to feel your prayers, huh?_ Hesitantly, Alphonse held the bag of seeds up to his chest and closed his eyes tightly.

He blocked out the warmth of nearby chi and the jumble of thoughts in his mind, and he focused on the memory of his older brother. Edward's smile, his voice, his bantering, his bright eyes, his strong arms holding Al up… The way Ed fought, the way he blushed, the way he laughed, the way he made the world's problems seem like a child's jigsaw puzzle… His height when he was fifteen and the miracle growth spurt that followed… Alphonse had to suppress a snort at that memory.

_Brother….even if we don't have this flower in full bloom…even though we're separated…you're still able to feel my thoughts…right?_

* * *

_W00T things are heating up! And MY FIRST GUEST REVIEW! OMG YAY!_

NinjaJuvia: Thank you so much for such a kind review! Yes I've read my fair share of Pride!Ed fics as well (and a lot of them were abandoned TT-TT) so I'm trying my hardest to make this sucker NUMBER ONE! *does the Fairy Tail Number One pose* While I wish I could have more reviews, I'm just happy I get any at all. And that they're so positive! Bonus!

_I was slightly compelled to write "_came at him like a wrecking ball" _instead of_ "came at him like a flash of lightning"_ but Miley Cyrus pisses me off so no. That and I don't think wrecking balls exist in Amestris. *poker face*_

_Now if you'll excuse me, I need to lie down, draw Len Ambros, and try to soldier through my headache._

_**—Tenchiko**_


End file.
